The Hidden Truth
by Nocturnal Novelist
Summary: A young teen who grew up in Pallet Town unwittingly becomes a pokemon trainer who tries to make it to the top while figuring out his past, meeting an Eevee along the way who becomes his special companion. Rated M for suggestive themes, violence, language, fluff, and possible lemons of pokemon x pokemon and human x pokemon later on.
1. Chapter 1: Something Begins

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the people who work at GameFreak, I just happen to own my fan characters and OCs.**

 **Hope you enjoy, Read and Review.**

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A cloudless morning came to Pallet Town, the average Saturday morning. Since the weather was perfect, you could guess that children would be out playing and battling with their pokemon. Well that went for most, there was a certain teen who lived in town that didn't get to have the same pleasure.

That teen would happen to be me, Kentral.

There wasn't much to do besides twiddling fingers and playing Nintendo most of the time. There's nothing too special about me, I was the average teenage boy.

My black hair would be combed or at least straightened usually, even though there are just those days where I find myself not bothering it. Like today.

Like any other morning, I took a look at myself in the mirror. I still saw the same face that only recently turned a year older. My eyes being the same shade of dark brown. I actually wasn't too tall, especially for being seventeen, being only five and a half feet tall. Which I honestly didn't mind.

I would say over the years I've gained more in the waist than I have in height. Not to say that I was fat, but I'll just say that a lot of people would think of me as playing football.

I've lived in Pallet Town for my whole life, and I had this house to myself for about four years. For a number of reasons.

First, my parents have been gone for the last four years, they were amazing people. I don't like to speak of the subject… Also, most of the people in town considered me an adult, too. Those are the main two reasons why I had the house to myself, the only person who was here was the family canine, a Growlithe named Chow who was about the same age as me. He mainly guards the house when no one is around, and while we were great friends, he took his job seriously, and he did it well.

Since I respected it, this is why I've never considered him to be my pokemon.

I wanted to head out for a little fresh air, but just when I was planned to open the door, someone gave it a firm knock.

Chow stood at attention as I turned the door knob. The door opened for me to see a familiar face, who gave a smile. His name, was Kendell Oak.

In a way, this is the guy who helped me out after the loss of my parents, and the only person I really tended to talk to. Of course, he was the main one I had to prove my mental age to in the first place, seeing as how he is the most knowledgeable person in the town.

He was a pokemon researcher, who I heard was related to the famous Professor Samuel Oak, and champion Blue Oak. The man was possibly in his thirties, he looked rather young for that. His skin was a lighter shade of tan. He had black hair and wore a gray lab coat, with black pants and shoes.

"Oh hi, Professor. What brings you here, rather early." I asked, despite it actually being pass ten in the morning.

"I wanted to ask if you could come over to the ol' lab, today. I have something that I want to ask of you, if that's alright."

I gave the professor a nod. "Sure, I'll be over there in a few." We both exchanged handshakes as we always did whenever we met up.

"Thanks Kentral, see you when you get there!" The professor announced with a smile as he left for his lab, leaving me to close the door and head upstairs to my room to change.

Most would say the professor and I have a good relationship, almost like a big brother who was always away from home to be honest. Being one of the top pokemon researchers, he's always busy. So, he would ask me to carry out some minor tasks for him every now and then, which I had no issue with since it gave me something to do. One could say I was his assistant.

I changed into a normal green shirt with some beige cargo pants, something along the lines of my usual attire. After slipping on my shoes and an empty bag I usually carried just in case, despite not having any use in most tasks. The last thing I grabbed was my red bandanna, something that my dad left behind from his adventures. I tied it around my neck.

With everything said and done, I headed towards the door. I actually thought I heard someone call my name and said 'bye'. I turned behind me, only finding Chow who was panting and wagging his tail. I was thinking the bandanna was on a little too tight, so I took it off for the moment. I said goodbye to the Growlithe and headed out the door.

From my place, it wasn't a far walk at all, though I did not make a habit of talking to people too much after that accident years back with my parents. I could never point to the reason why, but after that event I became an introvert.

Soon enough, I was at the lab, which retained it's old style, not going through much change since the original Prof. Oak's days. I've seen pictures of the first lab. There was the main room which was in the first floor, littered with books related to pokemon, computers, and usually starter pokemon for whenever kids feel like they're ready to receive their first pokemon.

There was a reason why I have never received a pokemon, but I've never found it important enough to explain it.

Then there was the second floor, made sometime back by a previous professor. This is where Oak does his studies, and it was where I was going.

When I made it upstairs, the professor happened to be doing some kind of research on his computer, it looked too complex for someone like me to understand. He happened to stand up from his working desk when he noticed I came in.

"Hey Kentral, thanks for coming." He greeted, me giving him a nod.

"Glad to help, what do you need?" I asked before the professor gestured for me to follow him to his other computer on the far side of the room, definitely the busy guy.

We both took a seat at the desk as he showed me what was on the computer, it was an image showing a clear crystal orb, I was thinking it looked like a transparent pearl. What could it be?

"I've recently been studying these odd objects that have been noticed around the town recently, unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to find one. Now, I finally believe that I am hot on the trail of one in the forest near here!"

What was he talking about? Why were these things so important?

The professor seemed to be noticing my curiosity, so he tried to explain it further.

"Basically, these orbs have a strange energy, they've made a lot of the scanners inside of the lab go crazy whenever one appeared nearby, but it seems they would disappear as quickly as they would appear. Even I don't know why they appear back and forth like this…"

"So is this the reason you called me over?"

"In fact, yes! You see, me and the other researchers here are kind of getting...Let's say we're not as quick on our feet as someone like you. Also, we happen to be doing more research by the hour, our work never seems to end. So I need you to take this…"

The professor gave me a rather weird looking device, it looked a lot like those ghost trackers people used in old pokemon ghost movies, even though I was pretty sure that the purpose of it was much different.

"You can use this to find that orb, this device has been specifically made for this task, so just walk around, and let it do all of the work. As for where we found it, i'm sure you've seen the woods that surround Pallet Town and Route 1."

The professor explained. I nodded my head so he could continue.

"It should be somewhere in there, to the east of town. Not many pokemon are found there as well as people, the worse you would run into are pokemon from near Route 1, they're fairly weak and don't tend to fight much, so you should be fine."

"Okay, sounds simple." I slid the device into the side pocket of my bag. "I'll be back soon enough."

The professor gave me a goodbye as I walked my way outside of the lab. Carrying out these tasks were nothing new, though the place I was going to was all too familiar.

The forest that surrounded the left and right areas of the town didn't have a name, but had a reputation in my life. This place was where it all started, the disappearing of my parents, me turning somewhat antisocial, all of that, it's where my life changed…

Still, since then, there hasn't been any problems there since then, so I managed to kick out whatever doubts infected my head.

On the bright side, it's been awhile since I decided to head outside, so this should be a good thing for me anyway. Without much protest going inside of my head, I made my way into the dense trees…

Once I made it through the trees, which one way or another served as the entrance, I was in the main part of the forest. There weren't near as many trees in this part, but the trees that were around here were huge, their crowns covering most of the sun's light, so it was pretty dim in here. Oddly, it was almost a pleasure to see.

Not planning on wasting too much time, I pulled out the device the professor gave me and started walking around, waiting for some kind of signal to pick up. Nothing.

This aimless walking lasted for about ten minutes, which was getting annoying. I was near the lake that lead to Route 17 by now.

 **Beep...Beep...Beep…**

I looked towards the device and finally saw a signal. I ran towards where it was coming from, and sure enough, there it was, resting under the fallen leaves of a tree giving a faint white glow.

When I put it in my hand, I noticed that it felt rather...strange. Well, not physically, it's like whatever energy was inside, I suddenly had, and when I dropped it, I felt like normal me again. It was so weird.

"You might as well give that to me, kid!" Said a man with a worn down voice, almost like he had a cold. I turned around to find a guy, dressed somewhat oddly. He was wearing an orange outfit with a big blue X in the middle of his chest. He had an evil smirk on his face, but he glared more at the orb in my hand than myself.

"Who are you?" I asked, curious though standing on my guard knowing he was going to try something dirty. I kept my distance as he advanced closer, his outfit seeming to jog at something in my memory.

"My name is not your business, kid. But I will tell you that I am a part of Team X, and the only reason i'm telling you is because I'll make sure you don't leave this forest! Go, cubone!"

The man threw a pokeball forward, covering the area in a harsh red light, revealing to be a cubone as the man said. By what I could see through it's skull, and the stance that it was taking, it was ready to knock me out. I didn't get to spend too much time around pokemon, but I knew not to underestimate a single one.

"So are you going to give that Bond Orb to me, or are you going to make this harder on yourself?"

Bond Orb…? I wonder what that could be for…

Despite the threats that came my way, I still kept my hold on the orb until I could come up with a better strategy. But what could I do in a situation like this?

"Alright then, have it your way! Bone Club!" The man yelled, and just at that moment the cubone threw its bone square at my face.

It felt like my head was going in another direction, blood flying out of my mouth. I hit the ground below, holding my mouth as it leaked with its blood.

"Dang...stronger than I thought." Since I've never been the one to pick fights, it's been a long time since I've been hit by anyone, and it hurts!

Even though the cubone didn't seem too strong, saying that my teeth didn't break with that sturdy bone, I still was stuck, and had a clue that he had other means of attack if I tried to run, I was stuck in a tight place…

" **EEVEE!** "

Right as I was about to give up, something tackled the cubone, something that looked like it knew how to use quick attack. The cubone fell over on its side as an eevee stood in front of me. My eyes went wide.

"What the hell?" The man stated in shock, realizing that his cubone's side looked badly damaged from the attack, that eevee continued to stand there, giving a warning growl to the thief.

"Rrgh...fine! You win!" The man whined, returning the cubone to its ball seeing that his crime partner wasn't going to fight back. He ran back into the deep woods where he first appeared, finally giving me the chance to take a breather.

"That was close...thanks, little eevee." I said to the fox, who gave me a cheerful "Eev!" as it licked my chin.

Thanks to it, I'm able to keep this...Bond Orb, that the professor has been wanting, as well as my own life. I stood back up to my feet, the eevee sat on its haunches, looking rather curious of me. It's not like I would know what it wanted, I've never owned my own pokemon.

"Is there something you need?" I asked. The eevee pawed at my pocket where my bandanna happened to be hanging out. What would it want with it?

"I'll see you later, I have to get going. Maybe we'll run back into each other someday." I turned back to the way I came from and continued my quest...that was until a certain pokemon lunged at my pants and took the bandanna I had.

"Vee," The eevee muffled with my bandanna now in its mouth, I was actually expecting it to try and run away with it, but it just stayed there.

"Do you even want it…?" I asked, sitting down in front of it. I extended my hand out to try and get it, but she only threw it at my neck instead.

"Wait, do you want me to put it on?"

This time, it nodded. Much to my surprise, I didn't know feral pokemon would be able to understand me...but I couldn't think of a reason why it wanted me to do this.

Going along, I tied the bandanna around my neck as I would usually do, and looked towards the eevee.

"Now what?"

"Can you...understand me?" The eevee asked, wait...the **EEVEE** asked!? I looked at the pokemon like it was crazy, but then it asked me again "Uhm...hello?" and I saw its lips move, and heard its more feminine voice, clear as day now.

"I'm...Uh...are you talking for real?"

Her ears perked up when I said this and her tail started to wag. "Wow, the stories I've heard are true...I wasn't expecting you to understand me." She gave me the biggest smile as I was stuck to wonder what she was talking about.

By this point I got over the fact that there was a talking pokemon in front of me, so I asked some questions of my own.

"What stories?"

"About that bandanna. I don't know much, but from what I heard about it, that was able to further aid communication between people and pokemon, even though I didn't think it was that good."

I gave a nod, "Okay, I understand now." I took a moment to look at it, my dad's bandanna was more special than I could have ever thought, and I have barely ever worn it around pokemon, odd enough.

The eevee reached towards my face, wiping off the blood from my mouth. "Glad you're okay though. What's your name anyway?"

"Kentral. Do you have a name?"

"It's...Kayla." The eevee answered, seeming somewhat giddy all of a sudden. "I never heard a person ask for a pokemon's name before, it's new to me."

She wagged her tail and hopped around like a puppy, I couldn't help but give a smile after seeing how happy I made her.

When I got a look at the time, I hopped straight to my feet. "This took way longer than I thought, I have to get going! It was nice meeting you, Kayla!"

With that, I started to run back to Pallet Town, leaving the young eevee deep in thought as she watched...


	2. Chapter 2: Prelude To A Kanto Adventure

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 2**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the people who work at GameFreak, I just happen to own my fan characters and OC's.**

 **Hope you enjoy, Read and Review.**

* * *

 **Recap: Kentral, a quiet teenager living his life in Pallet Town is suddenly sent to the forest by Prof. Kendell Oak to search for an odd orb object, which the name happens to be the Bond Orb. On this mission, he ran into a crook from this unheard of gang named Team X. Luckily, he was saved by an eevee named Kayla, and it turns out the bandanna from his father allowed him to speak to pokemon. What happens now…?**

It was a few moments worth of running before finally make it back to the professor's lab in Pallet, I made sure that I had a good grip on the shining orb the whole while.

Upstairs, Oak was continuing on his research as I walked in, somewhat exhausted.

"Hey professor, I have it!"

The professor walked towards me expecting an amazing discovery. I held the orb forward, which still gave its soft glow, and it was an amazing discovery indeed.

"Oh, wow! This is how it looks…" Oak took the orb from my hand, he was mesmerized by it, seeing how the light it gave reflected from his eyes.

"It's a Bond Orb, if I heard the name of it right. I've never seen anything like it, professor." I replied. The professor nodded before giving me a funny look.

"What actually happened anyway? You have smeared blood on the side of your face."

I actually did forget the attack that cubone unleashed on me, including the damage it caused. I rubbed the side of my face as I shrugged my shoulders.

"Kind of a long story…Huh?" Suddenly, I felt something fuzzy rub up against my leg.

The professor and I both looked down, seeing there was an eevee by me. "Hey, you're the same eevee from the forest." The eevee nodded her head with a big smile on her face, I recognized her because her back paws happened to be silver, something I failed to explain. It might have been her 'birthmark'.

"You know this eevee, Kentral?" The professor asked me.

"Yeah, her name's Kayla. I met her in the forest earlier. She really helped me out." The professor knelt down to her, rubbing her head with the palm of his hand, she gave him a purr. It was no surprise seeing how Oak was a natural when it came to pokemon, any pokemon he met practically came to love him at some point. It's not a skill everybody could just boast about.

Wonder why she didn't try speaking to me before just sneaking up like that, but that didn't happen to be my concern at the time.

The professor stood up, walking over the window completely silenced. Kayla and I looked at each other, she gave me that smile again with the wag of her tail. I lifted her off of the ground, and I was surprised that she didn't protest. In fact, she practically barked when I did.

"Kentral…"

I looked towards the professor as he finally turned back around facing the two of us. He took another look at the two of us together, having a proud smile on his face.

"I think it's finally time…"

"What do you mean, professor?" I put Kayla down, who continued to stand by my side.

"Kentral. You've always been...the quiet kid, in some cases, people consider it a good thing. Then seeing you, suddenly bond with this eevee that you haven't known long. I always believed you would make a great pokemon trainer, and that you deserved your own pokemon. It seems that this eevee wants to be your partner."

"Wait, you really think so?" I looked towards Kayla, who gave the biggest smile that I've seen on a person. On a pokemon rather. "Kayla, you want to be my pokemon?"

The eevee nodded her head, giving a cute yipping sound. I never actually thought I would become a trainer, with an eevee as my partner.

"But why have you never gave me a pokemon then? It doesn't make sense."

"I see there is a time and place for everything, and I feel that this meeting between you and Kayla was the best possible thing that could happen to you. Not only that, but I know that you went through a lot when you were younger, and letting you develop through that on your own turned you into the person you are today, and now I believe you're the perfect person to be a pokemon trainer!"

Despite feeling rather embarrassed, I couldn't help but feel proud of myself. It was the most important day of my life, and now I'm glad to see it.

"Thanks professor, I don't really know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything...much. Just follow me."

The three of us walked downstairs, where the main lab was. The professor led us towards one of the walls, which had a switch on it. The professor motioned for me to press it myself, which I did. A staircase leading downstairs appeared in the middle of the floor. As one could guess, we walked down.

It got darker the more we progressed down the stairs. Some light started to show as we made it down those final steps, and it looked like another lab, just a little cooler looking. All of the lights actually came from the technology that was inside, which gave the room a cool glow since it was dim.

Looking around, I saw poke balls, other items, it was all amazing.

"Kentral, all of this stuff you see down here were meant to belong to you the whole time. Just had to wait for the right moment." The professor explained. I didn't even notice how much excitement I had at the time.

The professor gave me cool items like a durable bag, map, potions, and poke balls, including a special one for Kayla which was a shiny silver color, I guessed that he made that in advance specifically for my first partner.

"Thanks for all of the stuff, professor!" By now, I had everything in my travel bag exactly the way that I wanted it.

"Hold on, I have one more thing I want to give you." The professor went into the back room. I waited there with Kayla, wondering what could it be. When he came out, he was holding something rectangular with a red color.

My eyes went wide as I slowly realized what was in his hand. "That can't be a pokedex that you're holding!"

"Actually, it is! Containing the most up to date information of all Kanto pokemon. Use it so you can learn about every pokemon, trust me, it'll be useful to you." With that, I slowly took the pokedex from Oak's hands, resisting the strange urge to hold the item over my head triumphantly.

"This is amazing, I actually get the chance to have my own pokedex. I suppose I should try it out…"

I turned the pokedex towards Kayla, who eyed it with a confused expression. It took a few moments for the pokedex to scan it before some information showed up on the screen. I read it inside of my head.

" **Eevee, known as the Evolution Pokemon. A pokemon with a genetic code so unstable that it could mutate into many different forms depending on its environment. They are a rare sight to see, even in Kanto as there are only a couple dozen known to exist.** "

" _Wow, that last segment was a little depressing."_ I thought, shutting down the pokedex and putting it in my bag. At least it showed all of the other information too, such as type, base stats, and other basics.

"Thanks, professor. I really appreciate all of the support!"

The professor gave me a tight hug, which of course I returned it. He was the man I had to thank for turning me into who I am today, and now I start to get the feeling that I could finally do something great for myself.

"You're welcome, brother." The two of us hugged it out as Kayla rubbed against my leg wanting constant attention. I picked up the small vee and placed her between my arms.

"I think I do want to go on a journey, but...what do you want me to do with the orb?"

"You know what, keep it with you. As a memento of this day, and i'm sure that you can find more use out of it in the future than I can. You deserve it. Good luck out there, and call me every now and then."

"I will, thanks!"

With that, I headed upstairs and then out the door. Kayla was behind me the whole time following my lead.

"We're going on an adventure! This is so exciting!" Kayla nearly squealed to me as we were taking a walk across the small town.

I gave her a nod, keeping a hold onto my bag. "Why didn't you try to speak to me, sorry to be rude, but it's been eating at me the whole time."

Kayla tilted her head until she figured out what I was saying. "Well, honestly. It seemed like the two of you had a close bond, I wouldn't want to make that awkward at all. So I just kept quiet."

"Wow," I muttered under my breath. "Thank you." It was odd to find out how considerate and nice she was. I have no doubt that she would be the best partner.

Something soon came into my head that made me stop and think. "Hey, I need to make a quick stop by my house for a moment."

"Okay. I'll just be waiting outside." Kayla answered.

"You sure, Kayla?" I asked, a little confused at the answer that she gave.

The eevee gave me a simple nod, since I saw that she meant her word, I just decided to go along with her. I knew that I wasn't going to take too long anyway.

Finally reaching my house, I asked Kayla to wait out while I went inside, putting my bandanna in my pocket. No one in the living room, even though I was expecting Chow. I hope to be able to find him before I leave.

I went into the kitchen and starting collecting some supplies I knew I need. Some food, water, lemonade, and some pokechow, for Kayla. All of this should be enough to last for about two nights, hopefully we'll be somewhere by then.

Upstairs, I grabbed my sleeping bag from the dark closet, which would normally be a tragic mess. Thankfully, I've been keeping it clean lately.

Something that was in there did catch my eye, I grabbed what looked like to be a small frame. It was a dirty old picture of me and my parents. I could still see all of the facial hair and dreadlocks my dad started to grow after his military training. He was so laid back and fun to be around.

My mom was beautiful, like she always was. She usually kept her hair short, sometimes in a ponytail. She was kind, loving, caring, the best mom ever basically. It's odd, but I saw some of her traits in Kayla, I don't know why.

I put the photo in the side of my bag. It seemed like I had everything I needed. " _Now where is-_ "

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the sound of claws clamping against the wooden floor, and before I knew it, I was tackled by a very gleeful growlithe and fell on my back.

"Chow! I was wondering where you were, you came up here in a hurry."

The growlithe licked my face happily as his tail wagged fast enough to where I couldn't even see it. I gave the dog a tight hug as I rubbed his head. He whined to me.

"I'm guessing you somehow heard the news? It's alright, Chow. I won't be gone forever! But you understand, don't you?"

The growlithe looked at me for a few moments before nodding his head to me, which made me smile. I knew him so long, having conversations like this about everyday. I really felt as if I didn't even need my bandanna to speak with him.

Standing up, I rubbed the canine on his head as I walked downstairs to the living room. Of course, Chow followed me. I honestly didn't even want to say goodbye to him, but I feel as if this adventure is something I need, and I knew he understood.

"I'll miss you, buddy. Professor Oak will be here to take care of you while I'm gone."

We gave each other one last hug, a lick on the face, and a pat on the head, before I finally left outside of my house…

Kayla ran up to me excitedly, rubbing against my leg despite me being gone for ten minutes.

"Did you miss me for that short time too?" I asked the fox, blushing slightly for some odd reason.

"Of course I did! You're my partner, how else am I supposed to feel?" The eevee smiled and purred, seeming in a good mood like always. It wasn't until then that I realized I haven't said anything about Kayla to Chow, which actually makes me feel somewhat guilty.

Chow was possibly going through his feelings right now since I was leaving, I would definitely tell him at some point but I didn't think now was the best time. So I decided to be on my way.

"Now I should think about where we're going to start…"

Pulling out the digital map the professor gave me, I started looking it over.

"Well there's a path north of here that we can take. It's pretty clear." Kayla said, sitting next to me.

"You mean Route 1?" I got a closer look at the map. "Yeah, a couple of hills, ledges, and trees, but looks really easy to get by, but it's near a two hour walk to Viridian. I guess we should get going while there's still daylight."

"Yes sir! Lead the way!"

With that, we heading north of Pallet where our adventure would finally begin as a duo…

 **ROUTE 1**

It didn't take long for Kayla and I to reach Route 1, I haven't gone too much outside of the town so I haven't really seen past the entrance. As I imagined, there were a lot of grassy plains and hills around. Kayla sniffed the pink and yellow flowers that grew around the trees.

The approaching sunset gave everything a beautiful orange glow, it looked so cool!

We've walked for a while, through the flowers, tall grass, and ledges that got in the way. Rattata could be seen going into their burrows and bird pokemon flying into the trees. I thought it was about time to pack it in myself.

I picked a good spot on top of one of the hills, where we could get a pretty good view at the oncoming night sky. Sitting on the floor with Kayla following suit, I started making her food and pouring her some water, as well as getting out a sandwich for myself. Kayla surprising ate the new type of food without any complaints in just a few bites, even though that mixture of food was more for fire types like Chow. I already kind of miss him…

"It looks so amazing out here!" Kayla barked, wagging her tail watching as night took over the sky. I chuckled seeing how amazed she was, I don't even know if she ever did watch the sunset before being in that dense forest.

I pulled out my sleeping bag and laid it across the ground, soon I went inside, relaxing my hands underneath my head to use as a makeshift pillow since I didn't use pillows much.

Kayla wagged her tail, taking her attention from the sky to look at me. The both of us smiled at each other.

"You want to join me?" I asked the eevee.

"Heck yeah I do!" Kayla scrambled herself into my sleeping bag, feeling her squirm around in there made me burst with laughter. She only poked her head out from the sleeping bag, though I could still see her tail wag under it.

The both of us gave out yawns, Kayla curled up and soon fell asleep. Though I was up for a little longer, thinking to myself.

" _My first adventure, with a friend I would have never made by normal means...Everything changed so fast, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing...I don't know what kind of pokemon or people I'm going to meet…_ "

My thoughts went on until I felt Kayla's fuzzy body push into me, suddenly, I felt calm.

" _Well whatever happens, I know Kayla's gonna have my back…_ "

With my thoughts finally clear, and a new mindset adopted in my mind, I finally was able to fall asleep peacefully.


	3. Chapter 3: First Steps

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 3**

 **I couldn't help but noticed that last chapter seemed a little bland, with not too much going on. I don't know really. Hopefully, this chapter will be a little better.**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the amazing people who work at Game Freak and Nintendo, I just happen to own my characters.**

 **Hope you enjoy, Read and Review.**

* * *

 **Recap: Kentral is now finally ready for his adventure, keeping the strange Bond Orb he found as well as his new companion, Kayla. He says goodbye to the loved ones he knew back home before heading for Route 1, where he and Kayla spend a relaxing first night together. And now for the next chain of events…**

The sun's light came into my eyelids. Noticing that it was morning time, I slowly opened my eyes from my slumber. It was early about seven or eight in the morning.

Looking to my side, I noticed the little eevee, Kayla. She was still fast asleep curled in a little ball of caramel brown fluff. I slowly wriggled my way out from the sleeping bag, making sure to not wake her up by mistake. I dug in my bag and started preparing our breakfast for the day, which was the same thing we ate for last time. _Note to self: Buy some more supplies later._

It was definitely near nine by the time all of that was done, all that was left to do was wake up Kayla. Kind of odd, she was such a bundle of energy and to see her asleep was almost like seeing two different people. I walked over to her and gently shook her awake.

"Huh...wha…" The vee mumbled, never fully opening her eyes. She just blinked slowly a few times, then went back to sleep. I came to the conclusion that she was a heavy sleeper, or something of the matter.

Getting a grin on my face, I decided to start shaking her more vigorously, while not hurting her. Kayla wobbled from side to side, her tail and ears started to twitch as she blinked, this time quickly. As soon as she opened her eyes for real, I stopped.

"Hey! Morning, Kentral!" Said the fox hopping out of the sleeping bag. I couldn't help but start laughing, seeing how silly she was.

"I can't believe it took you that long to wake up." I chuckled as her ears lowered with embarrassment, but she started to laugh with me too.

"Yeah...Sorry about that, I'm not used to sleeping around people. I usually brush it off sense the only things that touch me happen to be leaves and grass." Kayla ran to me and licked my cheek a couple of times.

After everything was packed away and we ate our breakfast, we kept going towards Viridian City.

It was about another hour of walking, we actually saw some of the buildings in the distance. We just passed the time by talking, there wasn't really much pokemon to battle this early in the morning. Another half an hour later, we could finally clearly see the city.

"Look! We're almost there, Kayla." I said pointing towards the city. Kayla's body beamed with excitement.

"I wonder what we're going to do there. I've never been to the city before." Kayla responded with the most curiosity behind her voice.

"Well, cities are basically like towns...but bigger. They have a lot of tall structures as well as people who are normally very busy and in a rush to get around. But seeing it will do better than my explaining will."

Looking back towards the way we were going, I saw somebody walking my way. He had dark black hair, it was spiky, like what I would see in an anime. He wore a dark purple hoodie, with the same color pants. He also wore a golden belt around those pants. The only other thing I've noticed about him was that he had a red band around his left wrist, which seemed normal, yet the strangest thing I've ever seen someone wear.

It seemed as if he had already saw me before I even noticed him, because he was walking toward our way. "Hey, strangers." He greeted the two of us as he approached.

"Hello." I responded with a short wave, Kayla was paying him close attention, as if something was off about the guy. For now, I ignored it and got to the conversation.

"Name's Shade, I see you're a new trainer."

The guy seemed around my age, maybe a few years older. He was taller than me by about four inches. I honestly kind of thought he was cool. Shade reached his hand out to meet mine, and I returned it with a good handshake.

"Yeah, I am. I'm on a journey for the first time too. My name's Kentral, nice to meet you." I gave a smile, not expecting to make conversation with another trainer so soon.

"Actually, the same would go for me. I've had my partner for quite some time now, starting to train him for a new job." Shade pulled a pokeball that was attached to his golden belt. With a short underhand toss, the ball went into the air before falling to the ground and bouncing before releasing a flash of red light.

The light was somewhat blinding at first, making me squint my eyes for a little. Kayla wasn't even phased by it, possibly used to seeing these type of things, being a pokemon.

As the pokeball flew back in Shade's hand, I noticed a creature standing in front of him. From what I could tell, it was a vulpix, but it looked much different. Well, it's natural body still looked the same. The hair on its head was more roughed up than what was expected of fox pokemon, I could make a good guess that it was a male. The main thing though was the colors of its fur...Mainly, a vulpix would have a variation of browns and orange for its fur, as well as amber eyes. His fur was a dark gray, and his tails were crimson red. Not even a shiny vulpix should have this coloring.

"I've...never seen a vulpix like that. Excuse me for a moment." I said, really taken aback by what I was seeing before me.

Pulling out my pokedex, I decided to scan him. " **Vulpix, known as the Fox Pokemon. A pokemon who is born with one snow white tail at birth, that forms into six more. With more age, it starts to grow even more tails. It has to release flames from its mouth when the temperature grows too hot to keep from overheating.** " I read to myself as well as the other information that came with it.

"There are reasons why Rou appears this way." He answered, bending down to pet the Vulpix. I was actually very interested in this, so I listened up. Kayla sat on her haunches and did the same.

"A simple but lengthy explanation. In simple terms, pokemon have genes just like us people, they have a lot more powerful genes than you and I of course and that explains the reasons why there are so many pokemon. Mostly, a way a pokemon turns out could depend on where they come from, including its habitat and what it was bred from. It can also happen through its personality and even its own trainer." Shade explained, I was catching every bit of information inside of my head. Kayla was listening hard too. In fact, maybe this could be why her paws happened to be Silver…

"But," Shade continued, "It doesn't just change appearance, but uncommonly, it can change its type as well. Rou happens to have an added type to his fire because of this."

This is the part where my eyes went wide, Kayla shared the same expression. "I never heard anything like that, it's so cool! What's his other type?" I asked curiously, watching the Vulpix closely.

"That, would be dark type, my friend." Shade answered, my head cocked like a dog trying to understand his owner's crazy shenanigans. "Ah, you must be from this region. As far as I know, no dark type pokemon exist in Kanto. The region that I came from, we have quite a few."

"Oh, okay. I have someone to ask to about it later then." I gave a smile, patting Kayla on the head. "Thanks Shade, I learned a lot." I said as the dude chuckled.

"No problem. Speaking of pokemon, how about you and I have a pokemon battle? It'll be fun." Shade suggested.

"It would be good to see what we could do as a team, right Kayla?" As I looked towards her as she gave a confident bark.

I have never had an actual battle before, but I've seen lots. I've even seen my dad fight against well known pokemon masters. Always have watched but never done, but I feel as if the thought of battling was speaking to me, and now I finally have the chance to find out how it feels. I'm lucky I waited until now, because I possibly would've got ahead of myself.

"Sure, Shade. I accept." I said to Shade, who stood up from the ground as Rou stepped forward, ready to face Kayla. "Alright, Kayla. Be careful in there.." I warned.

"Don't worry Kentral, just make sure to trust your better instincts. These battles depend on the both of us." Kayla whispered. I nodded as she stepped forward. I'm at least lucky I already have studied up on her moves a little before we left, thanks to being the professor's assistant, I already had a lot of knowledge of pokemon. It was time to put to the test…

"I'll let you have the first strike, Kentral. Attack when you're ready."

For some reason, I never trusted when people let their opponent have the first attack. To me, it felt that he had something ready, I had to make sure that I stayed on my guard.

"Alright." I took a deep breath. _Go with your instincts…_ "Kayla, use Quick Attack!"

Kayla started to charge at the dark Vulpix, gradually going into hyper speed, it was only a matter of seconds before she could make her hit.

"Counter it with your own Quick Attack!" Rou started charging towards Kayla in the same matter! The two ended up crashing into one another. As much as I did not like seeing Kayla getting hurt, it was syncing into my head that it's how battles are, and pokemon do this everyday. I was fascinated, seeing and coordinating a battle this close!

"Rou, hop back!" Shade commanded, the Vulpix quickly got up and jumped back, gaining some distance between the two fighting foxes.

I told Kayla to do the same, but just as she was jumping back-

"Ember! Now!" Rou shot out a small flame blast from his maw which headed straight for Kayla, and it made a direct hit! Sending Kayla back with a cry of pain. Hearing her cry like that was enough to make my stomach drop, there was no way I could let her down, she believed in me.

Seeing the scorch on the side of her fur, I decided that it was time to get my head fully into the game. "It's alright, Kayla! We can do this!"

Shade was silent watching me encourage Kayla, who hopped back to her feet. When she was standing, that's when Shade instructed his next move.

"Use Bite, quickly!" Rou started pounced towards the vee, showing his fangs that were ready to strike. I, had other plans for this fight.

"Kayla, use Quick Attack to get out of the way!" Just before Rou could get to her, Kayla moved like a brown blur, sending the Vulpix face first into the ground. Shade's eyes widened as I made the next, and final move.

"Now Tackle, with all of your might!" Kayla made a swift U-turn from where she was and rammed herself into Rou, sending him flying across the field with grass flying. Then we saw him, laying on the ground, fainted.

"W-wow. We won...WE WON!" I cheered out loud, as Kayla hopped around me, gleefully helping me celebrate. The two of us hugged tightly as Shade sat by his exhausted Rou, clapping.

"Congrats, that was a very interesting move. Using an attack for defense, I've learned something too." Shade commented with a smile, who rested his hand on Rou, who was just starting to become conscious.

I smiled, basking in the thought that I actually won my first battle, still, I wouldn't let that get ahead of me. "Thanks, Shade. That was a good battle." I told him. The two of us shook hands afterwards, and Shade eventually withdrew the vulpix back into his ball.

"Well, I should get going then. But first, do you happen to have a trainer card?" Shade asked, me nodding my head yes. He asked could he see it, and I saw no reason not to trust him. He had it for only a few moments before giving it back, and I noticed I suddenly had a lot more money than what I had before.

I looked up at him, speechless. The guy chuckled. "Just for your journey, I wish you the best of luck and that you find what you're looking for."

With that, Shade turned around and simply left. I gave a goodbye wave as Kayla barked and yipped possibly trying to say goodbye as well. Putting my card back into my pocket, I gave a sigh. I was hoping to see him again someday.

"We should get going ourselves. Viridian City is dead ahead." I pointed out, taking Kayla into my arms since I knew she was exhausted by the battle she just endured.

 **Viridian City**

We were finally at the entrance of Viridian City. The buildings stood tall, people ran about as busy as one could imagine. Some bumping into others because they were late for work and spilling their coffee on their clothes. Kayla looked around just as curiously as I did, the both of us never being in a city before.

"Wow, there's a lot of people here." Kayla whispered to me as I nodded.

"I doubt you would like cities that much due to all of the people, the place where we met seemed like a calm place." I guessed, Kayla shrugging her shoulders.

"More or less, but i'll be fine." She spoke somewhat lazily, giving out a short yawn. I started to look around.

"We better find a pokemon center so you can get healed…" I told the eevee as I started walking.

Being that the city was so large, it took quite a while to figure out where the pokemon center was, despite it being in the center of the city. It was a large building with the sign of a huge letter P at the top. The building was dome shaped, almost like a stadium of sorts. As far as I knew this pokemon center was way larger than most others seen around the region.

Upon walking inside, I took a moment to look around the center. Lots of trainers were in here, rushing to get their pokemon healed. By the way things looked, business was looking pretty fast. People seemed in and out within a couple of minutes.

"Okay, we'll get you healed up, and then check out a room."

I walked up to the front desk of the place where a friendly nurse stood, waiting for any other trainers who needed her. She gave me a friendly greeting. "Hello, welcome to the pokemon center! How may I help you?" She asked.

"Hey, I wanted to see if Kayla here could be healed. Then, I would like to check out a room, if that's okay." I stated to the nurse.

"Of course, that will be just fine! Let's heal your eevee first. Do you have her pokeball?" The nurse asked me as I pulled out the silver pokeball that was meant just for her.

Because I already knew how pokemon centers worked, I already told Kayla she would have to go into her pokeball to make it easier to heal. The first couple of times we tried putting her in one, she fought me off because she didn't really like the thought of being stuck inside of the capsule. But she eventually found it to not be too bad, thankfully…

Without putting up a fight, she tiredly gave in to her pokeball with a flash of red light. I gave it to the nurse who took it towards the back where they kept their machines for healing minorly injured pokemon. If a pokemon were gravely injured, the device would do barely anything to heal them. It was only a few minutes before the nurse gave me back her ball, I let out the little eevee.

Her fur looked better than ever, even shining. She was all healed up and looked ready for whatever came next. "Thanks, Kentral." She smiled at me as I gave her a thumbs up.

"As for your room, just follow me upstairs!" The nurse practically cheered.

She led us upstairs, most pokemon centers had two or three floors. The floor we were on now was the one where basically the visitors would sleep. People were allowed to stay as long as they needed as long as they had their trainer card on them. The nurse gave me another card, this one was for the P.C. membership. This basically meant I was allowed to get a room at any pokemon center guaranteed, or my money back, if I paid anything at all. We were soon at our new room.

I swiped my card in the small slot next to my door, and the door opened up on its own. I was fascinated to see the place so far, Kayla was also taking everything in, it was obvious she was never in a room before.

The place looked amazing, or at least to me since I lived in a small town my whole life. The living room was about medium size, with a flat screen TV hanging on the wall. The windows were open, letting a lot of fresh air inside. Kayla happened to be watching the occasional pidgey or spearow that would fly by. This place went by a theme of dark blue and black, two of my favorite colors that was painted in the bedroom and the living room.

The two of us went to the bedroom, the bed that rested on the other side looked queen sized, with a huge, comfy looking blue blanket. I kept looking around the place while Kayla plopped down on the bed and relaxed, eventually falling asleep. The bathroom and kitchen were standard, not really rooms I tended to care about in terms of design but they were still nice.

Something that was on the table in the kitchen caught my attention. As I walked over to inspect it, I saw it was a poster. "This was probably left by the last person who stayed here." I said to myself as I started to read it.

" **The Pokemon Gym Challenge!** " It said it huge letters with a somewhat goofy font at the top. I kept reading, getting a little curious to see what it was about. " **Do you think you have the chance to be the pokemon champ? Or maybe you just want to see how strong you really are? Then take the Pokemon Gym Challenge, face pokemon specialists know as gym leaders across the Kanto Region! Maybe you'll have what it takes to beat the Elite Four!** "

The background had a huge picture of who I believed to be pokemon master Red when he was a teen. At the bottom were eight other people. Were these the gym leaders? " _Isn't there a gym in this city?_ "

 _I was thinking that this could possibly be a good thing for me, testing our force against well recognized trainers who are skilled better than the rest. Seems like a good opportunity to test our skill and trust with one another. I wonder how Kayla would feel about this…_

I stretched my limbs, and gave out a yawn. "I should get some rest for now…"

In the early afternoon, Kayla and I were both awake. We were watching some television together after I got out of the shower.

"So...any ideas on what you wanna do?" Kayla asked me, that's just when the gym challenge idea started to ring inside of my head.

"I saw this poster about taking the gym challenge. Where we go around Kanto fighting gym leaders, who are basically very talented at using specific pokemon. Since we're traveling anyway, I thought it would be a good thing to do on the side, and plus I think this kind of challenge would be good for us in the future." I explained to the small fox, who gave me a nod to show that she understood.

"I'm with you, Ken!" Kayla barked jumping down from the couch where we were sitting. "Whatever you wanna do, I'll follow you all the way through!"

With that notion, I gave a smile. I stood up soon myself. "Let's go see what the Viridian gym looks like, before anything."

The two of us walked out of the pokemon center. Using the local town map, I eventually found the way to the gym. It was a really large building from what I could see, but not as big as the pokemon center. We both noticed there were vines that hung about, and hives that infested underneath the roof. Sunflowers grew in the gardens that surrounded it and honey oozed from the trees nearby. It all went together a lot like decoration. I could tell whoever owned the gym was definitely dedicated.

"Actually, Kayla…" I started to say to the eevee. She looked over to me, tilting her head to the side.

"Yes? What is it?" She asked.

"I don't think we're ready yet...I feel we should train together. That way, when we finally enter, we'll be at our best." I said, pumping my fist.

"That's a great idea! You're really smart, I think you're brave just for admitting it, because I didn't feel ready either...haha." The eevee chuckled as I did the same.

"Route 22 is at the left side of the city, which isn't far from where we're standing." I pointed in the general direction. "We won't go too far down that road though, that way we can get back down here quickly if we need too."

Kayla nodded her head with a smile. "Are there any places over there to see?" She asked.

"Yeah, the Indigo Plateau is over there! Only the best of pokemon trainers are allowed over there! A huge lake blocks most trainers from getting there in the first place, so I'm not sure how we'll see it. But maybe someday…" I told the eevee.

"Let's train hard. I think we have what it takes!" I shouted towards the sky, heading towards Route 22. Kayla following happily behind with a wagging fluffy tail.

* * *

 **There's Chapter 3! Special thanks to all that have read and liked the story so far! Quite a long chapter, but I believe the next one will be even longer! If you enjoy this story so far, or have any suggestions or tips for this new writer, comment! All comments are accepted and I greatly appreciate anyone who does decide to give their thoughts!**


	4. Chapter 4: Come On!

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 4**

 **Hey everyone, I certainly hope that Chapter 3 was a good read for you all. I do not have much to say, besides that this is going to be a super long chapter! (For my standards.) Get those digital bookmarks ready!**

 **AN: I want to thank Crimson Darkrai for his review, I appreciate your words and want you to know that I'm listening. Thank you so much! (I've written this here because I couldn't reply to your review, since you're a guest.)**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the amazing people who work at GameFreak and Nintendo, I just happen to own my characters.**

* * *

 **Recap: Kentral and Kayla meet another trainer named Shade, who has a Vulpix named Rou that is much different than his kind. The two of them finally reach Viridian City, where Kentral finds out about the gym challenge, and decides to take part in it. Taking some time to train, Kentral heads out to Route 22. So now the next part begins…**

 **Route 22**

"Keep using Quick Attack! We've gotta master these moves!" I shouted.

Kayla rammed back to back into the trees that we trained by, going light speed. Her speed was definitely getting a lot faster, and the force she gave was starting to show into the bark of the trees. We would have to go to different trees every now and then before they broke.

We've been training for a few hours, taking frequent breaks in between. While her Quick Attack got faster, her Tackle getting stronger by each strike, I knew I felt something not right. Even through testing the intimidation of her Growl attack, I eventually came to the realization.

"I don't think we're in sync." I told the vee.

I crossed my arms, sinking my shoulders as Kayla walked over to me, exhausted from the training session with a few minor bruises across her usually clean coat.

"Why do you see it that way?" Kayla asked with the most curiosity.

"Think about it like this...a lot of great, well known trainers have bonded with and known their pokemon very well. Just about everything about them. We've only known each other for a few days...and that makes me really doubt myself and our bond." I answered the eevee, sitting down on the dirt ground below.

I cared deeply for Kayla, she was ones of the few friends I've made in my life, and she even wanted to travel by my side as my pokemon partner. Honestly, that made her feel special to me, not to mention she just has an amazing personality and makes a great friend. I would never send her into a battle if I didn't feel like I wasn't at my best...because it's not fair to her.

Sighing, I laid down on my back. I wasn't able to figure out the reason why I truly felt this way until Kayla finally said something.

"Kentral, do you feel like...you're not good enough to have me as a pokemon?" Kayla asked, for some reason...I felt like she just hit a nail on the head.

"Well...What makes you say that?" I asked sitting up and facing her, a lot of thoughts seemed to be roaming about inside of my head.

"Eventually I could make a guess about the person you were. Quiet and keeping to himself, but also I could tell you have a large sense to earn everything you receive…" Kayla said, laying down next to me. I couldn't explain it, but I knew exactly where she was getting at.

"Basically, I saved you before. You still at this point feel like you've haven't done anything to redeem yourself or thank me enough...It's just a guess. But maybe that's why you worry so much, and you seem so surprised that we won our first battle." Kayla put simply, leaving me unable to even come up with a remark.

She was right, about absolutely everything. I couldn't help the fact I really felt that way, and as young as she acted and actually was, she was highly observant of me, and I guess that's how much pokemon feel about their trainers.

Unable to come up with a rebuttal, I simply nodded my head with a sigh. "Look Kayla, I don't know. It's a lot of new things going on for me as a new trainer...but yeah, you're right. And for a great pokemon like you...I feel like I'll never have another choice in that thought…" I said, unease following behind my voice.

Strangely, Kayla had a smile on her face. She was opening her mouth to say something…

 _ **BOOM!**_

The two of us fell on our backs as we heard _and_ felt a bizarre explosion. Looking to where the sound came from, it was coming from Viridian City, smoke fumed from multiple locations.

"What the heck happened?!" I exclaimed, hopping up to my feet as soon as I felt my sense of gravity again, Kayla doing the same hopping onto her four little paws. Without much need for the exchange of words, the two of us set off running back to Viridian.

 **Viridian City**

Kayla and I were just entering the city, Kayla was especially ahead of me being blessed with her speed. What we saw however, made the two of us give the same shocked, horrified expressions. The city, the part where we were at the time anyway, was going through complete pandemonium. A lot of people and pokemon alike where scattering around, I could see buildings, stores, and even a bank with immense holes of the sides. Kayla's ears flattened against her head as we watched the insanity.

Putting two and two together, I quickly realized that these buildings were definitely the source of the explosions we heard, in fact, those were the general places I saw people running from. No one seemed to be truly injured, thankfully. A couple of other people were there to see what was happening, and _**who**_ was making it happen.

Then, I saw someone, in a strange orange outfit, leave out the backway of one of the stores. He carried two large sacks, the contents unknown. Following the man from behind, was a mankey, also carrying a sack. _Was I the only person who saw this...and wait...orange clothes?_ I also saw what looked like a blue letter X across his shirt, which the complement color clearly contrasted.

I already had an idea what he was possibly affiliated with, but the clothes...they were so familiar. He was obviously with Team X...if I remember the name right. But...something else, the clothes were the main thing sticking through my mind… _Sadly, there wasn't much time to think, and not a policeman in sight…_

"Kayla, I just saw a thug from that gang we ran into before." I said, growling with rage.

The eevee's ears perked up when she head what I said. "Are you serious? Where did you see him run to?" She asked and I pointed the way, by the looks of it, he ran off into a tattered old warehouse not far from the destroyed buildings. Why was I finding it so obvious?

Without much thought, and rage unexplainably building up inside of me. I started running towards the building, Kayla followed behind me, which actually made me stop.

"Kayla, I don't know about you coming. It could be dangerous." I told her, showing my concern for her safety more than I did my own.

"Well, if it's too dangerous for me, then it is for you too. Come on! Aren't we together on this? You have to trust me as your partner like I trust you." Kayla said with seriousness behind her voice, which was a rare thing…

I couldn't help but start to feel guilty at this point, the least I could do was let her help me out. Like before, she was completely right. "Alright, whatever bad thoughts I have...I'll push them to the back of my head. We're partners...working better together than apart." I said, a small smile started to form on my face.

"That's more like it!" Kayla encouraged, rubbing against my leg with a gentle nudge. Thankful for having her around in these kind of situation, we went to the abandoned warehouse, hoping to find some answers…

The two of us started to sneak quietly around the building, careful to not make ourselves known. Not yet. The hollow alleyway where we currently were was empty, so I knew they would be inside. The faint sound of voices started to reach my ears while Kayla's ears twitched, I knew she heard it too. Were the walls really _that_ thin? These guys were slower than I thought, what luck for us.

Unfortunately, I could only hear them talk, and not what they were exactly saying. "Hey, Kayla, can you hear them well?" I asked the fox, who nodded for her answer.

"Hold on…" She placed her ear cupped against the wall. There was a window right above us, so I jumped up and grabbed the railing that was just under it and peeked to where the top of my head only showed. Four guys, talking about something, all wearing the same outfit. It actually made me sort of afraid...of how big this gang might really be.

"We have a lot of loot guys!" Kayla whispered for some strange reason, or at least I found it strange until I figured out that she was actually mimicking them. I continued to listen.

"So now...how are we going to get out of the city?"

"What!? You mean you didn't think of that before we got here! She said to make sure we had everything underway before we came here!? Fuck you dude!" At this point, the others guys began to punch the other in the face, one at a time in fact. A mankey watched in horror, seeing someone who was possibly his partner, beat up because of a mistake.

Nonetheless, I had no real sympathy. After that, Kayla mimicked even more information, and my arms were beginning to feel slightly numb. "Well...at least we gassed the cops, they won't be up for hours...and nobody even enters this place anyway...so we have the opportunity to get away unopposed…"

"That's what they think." I whispered to the eevee, dropping down from my spying, wriggling my arms around to make sure they weren't numb anymore.

"We're going in?" Kayla asked, looking my way for my approval. "You got that right. There's four of them, actually I think one's down for the count...we gotta be careful. Not the smartest bunch of thugs, but who knows what they have in store for unwanted guest…" I warned. I tried to put that age old feeling of doubt to the back of my head as we soon enough found an entrance to the inside.

The warehouse was pretty dark, the only light source I had to guide my way were the windows littered throughout the building walls that let the sunlight in...and that wasn't much. My partner, Kayla, being a pokemon would of course had better instincts to figure out which way to go. I could hear voices, getting more clear with each advancing step. They were just finishing a conversation as we neared, making it quiet. Now in the hallway leading up to another room, I bent down to meet her eye level and whispered to her.

"Most of their pokemon aren't out, so if we get rid of the people first...we may prevent huge issues later-" I told her before someone with a somewhat exhausted voice cut me off with "Mankey, use Karate Chop on him!"

Before I could even react to the sudden intervention, Kayla acted on pure instinct and pushed me out of the way with a Quick Attack, which sent the both of us flying into the next room, where three Team X thugs stood there, as if waiting. Out the hall, came a beaten man, blood trickling down steadily from the side of his mouth. He wiped his mouth off, showing a cocky smirk that had a tooth missing. Standing next to him was a mankey crossing his arms.

"Heheh...see guys? I knew someone had to follow me because I saw this punk looking my way. He wasn't slick." The guy spoke as the four of them began to advance on the two of us, stuck on our butts.

"I think our guest here could act as our _hostage_ , in case we run into any trouble…" One of them spoke with an evil grin.

As if his words triggered something in her brain, Kayla suddenly burst out an all out Quick Attack on all five of our enemies, moving at such speeds where she literally was a caramel brown blur. This made the bad guys look like they were hit by the air, even the mankey took it hard.

Taking the opportunity, I jumped up to my feet and elbowed the nearest guy in his stomach, which by chance was indeed the one who was bleeding already. I took a strong kick at one of the other dude's ankle, which like I expected, near broke his leg and forced him to his knees. I used to watch a lot of people do that on videos and things like that.

Now, I had the chance to gain a little bit of distance. Kayla standing in front of me, growling and ready to protect. "That was awesome speed there, Kayla." I lightly congratulated the vee unable to keep a pink blush from showing under her fur.

"Thanks." She whispered.

With that, the goons started to send out their pokemon, and we were dealing with a variety. Now a mankey, spearow, rattata, a zubat, and four members of Team X. _Alone we could handle, but with a team of eight, I started to figure out how we could get out of here, and how could I protect Kayla?_

As my mind went into deep conflict, Kayla was quick to snap me out of it. "The only way we're getting out of here is if we work together. If I look to you for guidance...than that means you're protecting me in your own way." Kayla said, even though it seemed like a chant by this point, I never heard her say that last part...it was starting to make me feel differently, and made me smile. "Thanks, Kayla...I won't let you down…"

Seemingly along with those words I muttered, something started to glow from the side pocket in my bag, and I got a familiar feeling. When I grabbed what was shining, it seemed to be the Bond Orb. As I held it in my hand, I felt it's energy in my hand...and this time I felt something more... _What was different this time?_

Well...Kayla was next to me, my current best friend and partner...and a desperate situation. With the orb in my hand, I began to felt myself loosen up, and think a lot more clearly.

"Kayla...This is something crazy, but we're going to make a special move." I told her, she looked at me like I just turned into a nutcase.

"The hell, is this dude crazy? Talking to his pokemon like she understands him." The man who said that scoffed, of course, I was hoping they would be that ignorant. I knew there wasn't enough time to explain, however, knowing that they would try and knock us out when they've seen enough.

So without any true reason other than taking a chance, I held the orb closer to Kayla. When it was between us, the both of us started to glow with the orb...I couldn't explain it...but I think I knew what it felt like to literally be thinking on the same page as another person.

"The hell!? Why are they glowing like that…?" One of the men muttered.

"That's it! Everybody send your pokemon to attack!"

Like a chorus who battled at the battle frontier, all four of them synchronized an attack, unleashing all four of their pokemon at once. Without so much as a warning, I picked up Kayla, spinning her for about once or twice, she unleashed Quick Attack during this time, and it somehow was making me spin faster and faster until I flung her toward our opponents who were just about to attack.

"Go for it!" I said when I flung her, with the command I gave, Kayla quickly appeared in four places at once...but this wasn't Double Team. Kayla's Quick Attack, as corny as it is to say, got powered up thanks to the bond the two of us shared, and now...I was starting to see how the Bond Orb worked a little.

Easily, she was able to attack all four of the pokemon at once, letting me able to cheer out loud as the pokemon all fell to the ground, barely able to move.

As we were about to celebrate, we heard someone else.

"Ray! Use String Shot!" Said an unfamiliar voice, followed by a wave of strings going right pass Kayla and I. The next thing I saw were three of the Team X thugs, and their pokemon. They were entangled in the sticky webs of String Shot.

Turning around to see who gave the command, I stepped on one of the thugs. _Trying to sneak up on me while the battle happened...despicable. Of course, that's exactly why I had Kayla used that move, we weren't fighting for honor either...just the skin on our backs._

The glow we had was gone now, and I felt like my usual self again...which was kind of a relief since I was so in the moment that I barely even knew how we came up with that. _Make a note to the professor about it…_

Now fully turning around, I saw a young man, slowly clapping with a caterpie by his side.

"That was awesome, dude." The man said, getting up to congratulate me. He didn't really seem too much older than I was, he must have been in his early twenties or so. He wore a consistent onslaught of shades of dark green in his attire, with a green leather jacket and wearing pants that were a light shade of emerald. He wore a red undershirt with dark red boots. His choice of style was certainly bizarre, but at the same time I found it amazing.

He held out his hand to greet me, and my right hand met his in a friendly shake. "Name's Blake, definitely one of the most unique battles I've seen with a trainer, an excellent combination move on your part." He said to me.

"Hey, what about me!?" Kayla whined, wanting some of the praise too. Of course, all he probably heard was a high pitched "Eevee!" Still, he bent down and petted her on the head, which she enjoyed being the friendly female that she was.

"You did great too." He said with a smile.

"Thanks for the help, I didn't even see the guy behind me...being so wrapped up in the battle." I told him, chuckling while rubbing the back of my head. "I'm Kentral, by the way. And this is Kayla." I gestured to the cute little vee.

"Well it is a pleasure to meet a good trainer. You should really stop by the gym after the city gets settled down, I would be happy to battle you!" He challenged, an eager raise of his fist. Ray, the caterpie I assume, tried to mimic Blake, despite having stubs for arms, which was adorable to see.

"What, now that I think about it...you do look like one of the people on the poster I saw! Wow! That would be awesome to battle you!" I shouted, Kayla echoing my enthusiasm with a ready bark.

"That's great to hear, by bug type pokemon have been itching for a good battle for a while. Come at the gym about two in the afternoon, sound fair to you?" Blake asked me, I nodded an agreement before the two of us exchanged another handshake.

With a short goodbye, Blake and Ray took the pleasure of hauling the thugs and their pokemon away, leaving Kayla and I alone in the warehouse.

"That sure was something huh? I felt really weird in that state, and it felt like the both of us knew our next move. It felt amazing. I wonder if we could do it again." Kayla said to me as I looked at the orb.

"Doubt it...it's like our prime instincts were unlocked the minute we really needed it, I don't think I can even remember how I came up with the stunt that was the move we did…still. It was fun, especially working together with you." The smile I had on my face grew even wider, as did hers.

"Same thoughts here, Ken" She followed. I only just realized that she started calling me Ken recently. I didn't have a problem with it at all. "We were awesome today, and of course I have to thank you…" Before I could say anything, she cut me off and continued.

"You may think that you still owe me or whatever for that day, truth is I already know that you paid me back enough. Your constant friendship, the work you put in just to train me and spend time with me. Honestly, I really did want a friend before I found you, and that day when I was about to just gave up...I saw that you were in trouble. And...from there I really didn't want to see you leave, especially with it being so easy to talk to you...so I stalked you on the way back to Pallet, and know I feel like I have a true friend…" Kayla began to quiet down, the cute smile that stayed on her face somehow got even bigger and she jumped into my arms giving me a hug. "...and that's enough for me."

I caught her just in time, still a bit in thought about what she just told me. I didn't want to think of it, since I knew what the answers to my questions were now. Returning the hug to her, I said to her ear "Thanks, Kayla…"

"You're welcome." Kayla said, we sat there and hugged for a while. While it wasn't something that normal friends would do for this long, we didn't have any issue with it.

 **Later...**

Everything in Viridian was finally settling down, repairs started to get working fast and I got the word that the crooks were in jail, I heard the pokemon were set free too. I didn't really know nor care whether I got any of the praise or not, it would be nice, but it wasn't my concern.

It was finally time now, two in the afternoon to be exact. Kayla and I stood in front of the gym side by side, both equally determined now since we felt like an unstoppable duo. Of course I would not do the attack we did in this battle, as it is for competition and honor...Kayla was my main general, and I was ordering for a huge strike on the gym. _Time to make our mark._

I was tingling with excitement at first, but I became quickly determined and serious, knowing that the stakes were high. We walked up to the gym doors, but not yet stepping close enough to where the doors would sense our presence and open automatically.

"Alright, I heard that there was always a puzzle in these gyms. It's basically the gym leader's way of seeing one's wits before they face him." I informed my partner, who gave me a confident nod before we stepped inside.

The gym looked amazing inside! Wait, amazing wasn't really a good enough word for it, the first time being inside one was truly breathtaking. Like the outside, the inside really brought out the gym leader's love for nature and bug type pokemon.

It was like a literal jungle in here, there were long webs that hung from the ceiling, unexplainably looking super sturdy. Tree-like statues were on the opposite sides of the gym, and uptop, were battlefields where other bug type trainers were testing their might.

I looked straight ahead, an abyss blocked the way to the other side, a large staircase there, leading me to believe Blake was waiting at the top. Well, looking down, it wasn't exactly an abyss because a large spider web trampoline was at the bottom, very popular. I guessed that it was for people who fell down while trying to solve the gym's puzzle.

I looked towards the location of the webs, and then I looked around. I noticed there were switches on the walls, two to be exact, but it was a long way to get there...or a long swing.

"I got it!" I exclaimed, starting to see the situation at hand. Kayla looked up to me.

"You know how to get through?" The fox questioned.

"Mmhmm." I said with a nod. Bending down, I scooped up the eevee who gave a surprised yelp and placed her on my back. "Hang on the best you can."

With that, Kayla held her small arms around me as much as they allowed, and for good measure she dug her fangs into the collar of my green shirt, _I just then happened to realize that I have to get some new clothes._

Without anything further to say, I ran forward towards the gaping hole and jumped toward the nearest web with all of my momentum, and held tight when I caught it. Like planned, I was swinging across the hole with this new spider vine! I could feel Kayla's tail wag seeing my strategy.

It seemed that I would have to catch another web in order to reach the switch, this really put my athletic skills to work. Like being in a circus, I was able to grab the next one, which headed towards the wall where the switch was. I places my weight towards the wall and grabbed the switch, proceeding to pull it. When I did, the ground below began to shake as one half of the missing floor raised to the living. At this point the trainers up top stopped what they were doing to watch me go at it.

With a powerful push off of the wall I was able to swing to a more farther off vine of web than I could have before. Of course, I eventually made it to the second switch and pulled, raising the second half of the floor to where I could finally land. With the road to the stairway now complete, Kayla cheered jumping off of my back.

"Nice thinking!" She congratulated.

"We're not done yet Kayla, now it's time for the real showdown." I told her, walking toward the staircase with a smile. The fox followed. Whether we won or lost, we were in this together, but still...I planned to win.

We met Blake, arms crossed with a grin across his face. "Kentral and Kayla, can't say I'm surprised you figured out my lame puzzle. Glad you could make it." Blake said, happy to see the both of us too.

"Thanks, glad to be here." I said simply.

"Well, we don't need to drag this out. I'm ready for a good fight." Ray smirked, pulling out a pokeball as he lead me to the battlefield.

When we reached our side, I sent Kayla out ahead. A little kid scurried down to the center of the field with his metapod on his back, seeming very excited to carry the flag he carried in his fist.

"Just to let you know, I only have Kayla with me." I called from across the field, Blake sent me a thumbs up to confirm my message.

"I'll be using my standard two, so keep your wits up." He called to me. "Go, Ray!" Blake threw out his familiar caterpie along with his call.

Kayla took a battle stance, she never seemed to take an opponent so lightly. I remained the same, still serious about winning, I know that bug type trainers are normally frowned upon by other trainers, weak to types like flying, fire and rock. Still...seeing the dedication here...I knew that this was a prelude to something else.

"Let the battle between Leader Drake and the other guy begin!" The kid yelled, being the referee as he swung the flag wildly like he was having the time of his life. I took a moment to think about what I mainly learned from the professor, seeing as Blake was calling an attack, I had no time to pull out the pokedex.

"String Shot! Let's go!" Blake yelled, the caterpie shooting a single shot of web toward Kayla that came quickly. Luckily, she saw it coming on her own and dodged, that wasn't a trick he could use on her so easily. I kept in mind her limited moveset.

"Use Quick Attack to circle it around!" I ordered. Doing as told, she started to circle around and around the worm, who continually attempted to catch her with his web, but he was just too slow. Eventually all that fast spinning would catch up to those not used to it.

"Oh no! Ray stop following her!" Blake yelled, but it was too late. The caterpillar starting to slow down, and get dizzy, shooting it's webs into the air, which landed on itself! Yay for us!

"Tackle! Finish him!" I yelled, then RAM! Ray skidded across the floor still tangled in his webs. He didn't stand a chance! He was down for the count!

We mentally cheered as Ray was returned into his pokeball. "Wasn't one of our best, old friend. I'll definitely make it up to you for such a mistake on my part." With that, he pulled out his next, and last pokeball.

"Alright Moss, let's give em a show!" With a strong underhanded toss, a butterfree was brought into the field like the entrance to a contest. It's wings were near transparent, which somehow made them even more beautiful, but his eyes, they bore into Kayla's...not knowing how they were in battle, I knew I had to keep up my guard. I would need more than Quick Attack and Tackle…

Just as the thought came to my head, my pokedex started to go off. When I picked it up, it said that Kayla had just learned the move Bite!

Keeping that into the back of my mind, I checked butterfree's info. " **Butterfree, known as the Butterfly Pokemon. It's wings are covered in a toxic powder, and with very good accuracy, this pokemon could make a dangerous opponent.** "

"Be careful of it's wings!" I yelled to Kayla. Her left ear twitched, letting me know that she heard me loud and clear. She was really focused, this wasn't a powerful pokemon by any means but it had it's own defenses. If I could get one attack in, we'd be golden.

"Quick Attack, let's get to it!" I shouted to Kayla, who went into her insane speed charging toward Moss. Blake only smirked.

"Blow her away with Gust!" Blake called, the flying insect starting to flap its wings powerfully, making Kayla get blown back, hitting the dirt hard. The other bug type trainers in the area roared an applause for their leader.

My foxy companion got up the ground, bruised on her side, but still standing. We weren't out of this yet, but there's no way I would want to try a direct attack like that again...Kayla used her Growl attack on instinct, but seeing how he had the advantage to this fight, Moss was unphased by it. _What could we do?_

"Stun Spore!" Blake commanded as the bug type started flapping it's wings again, this time glowing yellow spores blowed her way.

"Dodge it, quick, Kayla!" Kayla moved out of the way, but a few spores still found their way attaching to her. But then I thought about it...and that strike I needed to happen was starting to find its way.

Kayla's legs started to tremble once, then twice. Though she still stood, she grunted as sparks formed around her body and she felt somewhat numb. She was paralyzed...but if a pokemon put forth enough effort and with enough speed, they could still move. Both of which I knew Kayla had. I hopped for the best.

"Moss! Ram it into the ground and then use Confusion at point blank!" The butterfree then started to charge at my friend, I was hoping for that!

"Kayla, you gotta act fast! Gather your speed and give em your best Quick Attack!" I shouted, pointing to our approaching opponent who was determined to finish her off.

With some resistance, Kayla got her legs moving again and pounced off the ground towards the butterfree. My question then was, could pokemon use two moves at once?

Time to find out! "Now use Bite while still keeping your Quick Attack! Get it in the stomach!" I called from where I stood. Square on! Kayla, flew straight into its belly and opened her jaws, fangs starting to glow before she gave a powerful Bite to the same area.

The butterfly screeched in pain as the two brawlers were now hurdling towards the ground. "Kayla! Hop off!" I commanded, but she couldn't move...her paralysis gotten worse. The two ended up slamming into the ground. The both of them tried standing to their feet from the hard fall, both looking rather battered.

There was an awkward silenced, everybody watched the standoff feeling their muscles tense up waiting for the first to fall. Kayla's feet were wobbling and she was blinking in and out of consciousness. " _Stay strong, Kayla!"_ I mentally cheered for her raising my fist.

The butterfree, slowly flapped it's wings to get itself off of the ground, and I was fearing the worst. That was, until it fell back down...and didn't get back up.

"W-wow." The little boy muttered. "It looks like the challenger wins the match!" The little boy then shouted, dropping the flag to cheer, and so did the other bug type trainers. A roar of applause once again filled the gym.

With that all said and done, Kayla collapsed on the floor hard suddenly. She must've really been fighting her body back and forth for me. Naturally, I ran over and scooped her up, silently chanting her name for her hard work in the battle, making her near limp tail sway just a bit.

Blake walked over to me, having long since returned Moss and giving him a well done. "Congrats, dude. You did awesome, I think I've could've did better, but it certainly was an amazing battle to behold. Here. Take it." With Blake's words, he handed me a badge.

My eyes lit up as I took the badge, it gleamed in my eyes. "You've earned the Pest Badge. Also, some gifts from me." Blake said as he handed me two things. The first thing was an official pokemon league badge case, one thing I was very happy to have. The other was a TM, which contained the move U-Turn.

"I'm sure you know about TMs and the badge case, so I know they'll be put to good use someday. For now, I have some training to do and still have things to learn. The other gym leaders are more powerful and experienced than I, so watch out for that. You did a lot today, now that I think about it. How about tomorrow you go out on the town and see around, I'm sure I can convince some store owners to give you discounts because of what you did today. For now, you just need to get some rest kid." Blake said, the two of us shaking hands before I left outside with a new outlook for what's ahead.

Looking down to Kayla, she was fast asleep in my arms. We'd been in there for a lot longer than I thought, the sun was about to go down soon. As I walked back to the pokemon center and the sun set, I thought to myself " _Thanks, Kayla. You're the best partner a trainer could ever have…_ "

* * *

 **Well guys, it took me a couple of days longer to write this chapter but here it is! I certainly hoped you enjoyed it, as well as seeing some of my newer concepts, some of which are still very experimental and I plan on improving. Tell me what you think of the stuff in this chapter if you have any thoughts.**

 **So of course, I have to say expect long chapters in the future, but maybe not this long. Seriously, this was a workout for my fingers! As always, thanks to all who have read and enjoyed the story up until now! Seeing those views go up by the day really gives me confidence. Reviews, comments, all of that is greatly appreciated! I'll see you all next update, so stay tuned!**


	5. Chapter 5: As The Days Go By

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 5**

 **What's good people, welcome to Chapter 5. This chapter isn't nearly as long as the last. This is a laid back chapter in the story so don't expect much action. Still, I hope you all enjoy, happy reading!**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the amazing people who work at GameFreak and Nintendo, I just happen to own my characters.**

* * *

 **Recap: While going through a long training session at Route 22, something goes down in Viridian that causes explosions in multiple buildings. Taking in the observation, Kentral discovers that Team X is behind the crazy business. Giving chase and running into them at their temporary hideout, the human and his eevee partner run into a desperate situation, which the Bond Orb somehow gets them out of. They meet Blake, Viridian's current gym leader and later challenge him to a battle, where Kentral and Kayla take the win. Now, after a day full of nonstop chaos, Kentral and Kayla now decide that it's time for a well deserved rest…**

My brain was starting to register my surroundings, I was just waking up on a soft bed with something fuzzy pressed against me, trying to get more warmth, still I didn't proceed to open my eyes. It was rather chilly in the room that I was in, of course I remember after the events of yesterday I went straight back to the pokemon center and went to bed.

As my eyes started to open, I realized there was barely any light in here, besides the moonlight that reached in through the windows. " _I wonder what time it is._ " I pondered before looking at the clock right next to me, seeing as it was only about four in the morning.

" _I'm up early._ " I thought. Despite that fact, I seemed to be well rested, and nearing closer to actually staying awake. Looking over to the fuzzy creature nested next to me, I saw that it was none other than Kayla, the moonlight reflecting off of her brown fur, giving it a somewhat odd glow that was interesting to look at. Somethings started to come into my mind about her lately, but I paid it no mind for now as I didn't want it to get in the way of our journey.

Slowly, I started to slither my way out of the bed, careful not to wake the exhausted fox. She went through a lot yesterday, with all of those battles, it would exhaust any pokemon who probably hasn't battled too often.

Anyway, I decided to just go ahead and get the day started. It was kind of cool being up so early, I did wonder what made today different.

"What to do today…?" I said quietly to myself as I walked into the living room, not bothering to turn on a light or the tv, I just laid against the couch. I was still in my night clothes, by the way.

While I sat there in deep thought, something did run across my head. _Blake did invite the idea of exploring the city a little bit before leaving, it didn't seem like a bad idea at all._

With that, I started getting ready. I showered, I got my clothes together which was nothing more than a plain white shirt and cargo pants. Brushed my teeth, it was all said and done. Still, it was only about five in the morning now, I didn't want to wake Kayla up before seven.

Actually, I needed to call the professor anyway so I could tell him everything that happened. I headed downstairs so I could use the phone. When I called his phone, it was no surprise that he would be awake at this time of night.

The phone was connected to a camera and a screen, that way callers can do video chats and things like that, of course that was going to be the case with the professor and I.

"Hey, Kentral! It's been a few days, glad to see you make it to Viridian City!" Oak greeted me, I smiled and gave him a nod.

"Yep, been here for a few days and I even got my first gym badge! See?" I exclaimed, pulling out the badge I received yesterday from the Viridian Gym that almost seemed to glimmer with its appearance.

"Congratulations! I see you're taking the gym challenge! That reminds me, how's your eevee doing?" He asked.

"Better by the day, she's still getting stronger. Oh, wait. Something awesome happened yesterday, by the way. The Bond Orb, it's something powerful." I told him with an excited glow in my eyes.

Actually, Oak's eyes lit up too. It would be obvious that he was ready to find out anything there was to know about the strange object. "What did you find out?" He asked me.

"Well, Kayla and I found ourselves in a tight spot. Suddenly the orb started to glow and then we started to glow with it. I can't explain it, but we both started thinking on a much higher level and our minds were like...together. It's hard to explain…" I said, scratching my head while the professor was taking notes on everything that I have said.

"I'm starting to see why it may be called the Bond Orb. Maybe another one will appear nearby sometime soon and we can experiment with it. Thanks, Kentral. It helps a million." The professor told me with a confident smirk.

As I chuckled at his enthusiasm, I heard a loud bark that was somewhere offscreen and I had an idea of who it was. Without so much as a single warning, the professor was shoved out of the way by a canine pokemon who sniffed at the screen. My eyes lit up as I saw it was none other than Chow, the growlithe back home protecting the homefront.

"Chow! I missed you, buddy!" I shouted quietly, keeping in mind there are people upstairs still sleeping as well as others nearby.

"Growl!" The canine barked, licking the screen. It was then I realized I had yet to put on my bandanna, so I heard his pokespeech. Still, I could understand roughly what he was trying to say. I missed him as much as he missed me, it would've been fun to have an actual conversation with him.

The professor came back to the screen rather shakingly as Chow wagged his tail happily. Rubbing his head, the professor spoke again. "Yeah, Chow comes over very often now since your not around. I know he misses you and he gets rather bored around this time of night. I think we both share the thought of being happy that you're okay." He told me.

"I'm glad to see the both of you are doing the same." I said in return.

There was about another half hour worth of talking and such before we ended the conversation, promising to keep in touch. By now, the sun was just starting to rise as I was making my way back to the room.

I was just tying my bandanna around my neck as Kayla woke up with a quiet yawn. That's when it just hit me, the fox hasn't had a bath since we started traveling together. The thought never reached my mind until now, she seemed to keep her fur rather clean but there could be a lot of dirt underneath her brown fur, where it would hide well. Odd enough it didn't bother me that we slept together on multiple occasions by now, still, it was work that was needed to be done.

"Hey, Kayla. When was the last time you bathed yourself?" I asked her as I rolled up my sleeves.

The fox thought to herself for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. Letting out a sigh, I knew what I needed to do.

 **Later...**

Bathing her didn't really prove to be a complicated task, it was actually easier than I thought and it wasn't long until she was finished. Now she definitely had a shine in her fur and ready for a new day. I already told her that I planned on taking the day off from trainer stuff, which she was more than happy to hear.

Thinking about it, I had stuff I needed to do before we left anyway. After we ate the complimentary food they gave me to cook, which was actually delicious, the two of us left the door.

"So what are we gonna do around the city?" Kayla asked, practically bouncing around me with excitement.

"Well, first I plan on going to the pokemart, I need to pick up a lot of supplies before we set out again." I answered, patting the bag on my back which I brought to carry the supplies I would soon buy.

As promised, the two of us headed to the pokemart. The shopping trip would've been quick, but a lot of people kept asking about Kayla almost every time I strolled through an aisle.. Sure is was nice hearing compliments about my buddy, but at the same time it felt so awkward, especially still getting used to being around a lot of people. Anyway, we were in and out rather quickly. After the stuff was placed back into the room, we roamed around the city, looking at all of the tall buildings and people hustling around like football players. Needless to say that we were pretty bored.

"Hey, Kentral!" Called a familiar voice from behind.

The two of us looked back to find Blake running up to us, along with his butterfree, Moss. I gave a friendly wave as Kayla barked for her greeting.

"Hey Blake, what's up?" I asked, Kayla meanwhile having a conversation with Moss.

"Nothing much, dude. I just wanted to check how you were doing before you left. Which reminds me...I should go take you to get a PokeWatch. It's what happens to be cool, and important for trainers too." Blake told me, making me tilt my head to wonder what that was.

He saw the confused look that I gave him. "It's easier to just see for yourself, but it's a simple device that tells about the strength and health of your pokemon." Blake explained further as I nodded my head.

"Lead the way then." I told him, with that, we were heading to the other side of town, which was quite a walk. We walked inside one of the buildings, which happened to be a store.

Looking around, I noticed all kinds of clothes and accessories for trainers and their pokemon alike. Scarves, hoodies, brushes. If someone could name it, this store probably had it.

"Wow, this place has a lot of stuff." Despite it sounding rather dull, it was the only thing that could come out from my mouth at the time, being so surprised. Kayla was looking around at all of the stuff they had too, it made me think for a moment of how interested she was in everything.

"You know, if you want you could look around while I go see about the pokewatch, I doubt we'll be too long." I said to Kayla, looking over to Blake to give me a time estimation.

"Shouldn't be too long." Blake put simply. I nodded.

"Meet us back in the front in about forty minutes." I told her. Kayla's ears perked up and she had a big smile on her face.

"Okay! Thanks!" Kayla exclaimed before running into the depths of the store, her new friend Moss following her behind.

From here, Blake led the way. Our walk was silent for a couple of moments before I decided to speak up. "So. What made you want to become a gym leader? You're really young, like...you seem near my age sometimes." I asked the bug enthusiast.

Blake laughed at my assumption. "Yeah, a lot of people tell me that, and I'm forgetful too, if you couldn't tell." The guy cleared his throat. "Anyway, I had a love for bug type pokemon since I was a kid. I grew up with them, by parents happened to be top bug catchers. I wanted to make a name for bug types, as well as gather other trainers who love them, as you saw at the gym. That's the basic story, I plan on making my pokemon as strong as possible. You should come back for a rematch someday." Blake said, starting to trail off.

"Yeah, I think I will. It'll be a good battle." I muttered.

A few minutes later, a guy was helping me find my right wrist size, since I never wore a watch before, I had no clue. The pokewatches looked rather odd. Some were blue, some red, and the rest yellow. Basically the main part of the watch was digital, showing the time and day. It had buttons on it, which I soon found out that they switched the screen the pokewatch was currently on.

As the guy snapped on onto my right wrist, he showed me the other functions. "See, these buttons switch the screen. There's pokemon strength…" He began, pressing the button. The screen showed a lot of empty stats, for level, power, defense, speed, and so one. The reason why it was blank was because I had no pokemon currently to scan. But I could see whenever I found Kayla, so it didn't really matter right now.

"Next would be pokemon bonding…" The next screen was blank except for what looked like a single empty bar, with three blank hearts. He explained that the bar and hearts display the affection a pokemon has toward their trainer. The bar was the main meter, while the hearts were like the extra levels, like a really high level of affection. It made me wonder how much Kayla really liked me as her trainer.

"Last one for now would be the phone. Basically just call a phone number and just talk to the person. Easy as pie." He demonstrated. "There's other installments, but you can buy more at the other pokemarts. The pokewatch itself is for free, kid. Have a blast with it." He said bluntly as I nodded.

"Thanks so much." I said showing my gratitude with a big smile, Blake gave a nod to me.

"Cool, now that you got one of those, I should go back to the gym. We should go find Moss and your Kayla." Blake said.

"Okay, it's been about forty minutes…" I replied.

Later on, the four of us met up back at the entrance of the store. "Dang, I'm gonna miss your company here, dudes." Blake told us, the two of us proceeding to shake hands. He then rubbed Kayla on the head.

"Trust me, we'll see each other again. I guarantee it." I replied, Blake giving a nod.

"Great. I'll see you two around." Blake smiled, leaving the store with Moss tagging behind him.

I waved them off, returning the smile. Kayla soon bumped against my leg catching my attention from seeing the gym leader go.

"What do you wanna do now buddy?" Kayla asked with the giddy grin she always seemed to have. I couldn't help but smile at the vee, then I thought about the watch attached to my wrist. Her stats were honestly the least of my worries at the moment. Really, I was wondering about the affection that she had towards me. Her information was already being registered into the watch, so it was a good time to check.

I set the watch onto the affection screen. Watching the screen carefully, I noticed a small eevee head come up in the right hand corner. The meter at the bottom slowly started to fill up, sweat going down the side of my face. "Uh, Ken?" Kayla asked noticing the blank stare I gave to the screen.

"U-uhm. Hold on, I'm just checking the time…" I lied terribly, part of me not even knowing why I lied in the first place. What I didn't notice was that the meter was already filled, as well as two of the three hearts. Looking at the eevee, I started to get a strange feeling. _I didn't even know I liked me that much, we are suddenly like the best of friends and we knew each other for only about a week now. It honestly...felt amazing to see someone love me this much…_

I didn't really show any feeling from it, at least not yet. Turning the watch off, I looked towards the fox. "Saw anything that you like back there." I asked Kayla with the most curiosity. Her eyes lit up as she remembered all of the cool stuff that she thought was awesome.

"Yeah!" She shouted with her tail wagging. "A lot of good stuff, these human stores have an interesting taste in style." She grinned.

"Well, how about you go get what you want. I'll cover it." I told her with a smile, patting my pocket. "All on me."

"Really?!" Kayla's tail was starting to wag in that familiar brown blur again. "That means so much!"

"Heheh, it's not an issue. I see you a lot more than just simply a pokemon, you're my partner. Partners deserve a lot of love, especially when they do a lot for me. C'mon." I said, leading her into the other departments of the store. _I wonder if she was going to buy a lot of stuff like most females would do._

Truthfully, she didn't really want a lot. She only wanted this brown scarf that she saw. Seriously, that's all she wanted. When we were about to go pay for it, she ran back into another part of the store, soon coming back carrying a medium sized hoodie on her back. It was a black hoodie, with red stripes lined across the arms. It was honestly one of the coolest hoodies I've ever seen.

"It's for you." She spoke with a kind smile, tossing it up to me with her tail.

"Wow, thanks." I replied, nearly wordless. Sure, it was my money, but still, she was unbelievably, just naturally kind hearted. It still surprised me. She didn't really say anything, just kept on smiling…

After that, we came outside. A lot of time passed, it was already about three in the afternoon. Kayla's scarf was tied on, and I was wearing my new jacket. "Hey, you wanna go by the lake? There's not a lot of people there." Kayla asked me.

"Lake?" I replied before I remembered the lake near the entrance where Route 1 is. It's been awhile since we were over by the southern side of town. I nodded to her.

The two of us headed over to the lake, a lot of grass covered the area around it. It was quite different from the rest of the city, Kayla thought it was a pleasure. It would be like home for her, a little bit.

We both took a seat, staring into the lake. The bright blue water, sparkling beautifully, gave off our reflections as we stared. For some reason, this moment just seemed so familiar...I couldn't explain it, but it reminded me a lot of something. It was so vague and blurred, like it happened in another world. _Eh, I tried not to think about it so much._

"You agree today was a good day?" I asked Kayla, trying to start a conversation. She nodded.

"Yeah, it can only get better, Ken." She started to giggle mischievously, making me tilt my head. Before I could even think of what she was getting at, she splashed my face with the water from the lake. Being caught by surprise, it made me fall back, forcing myself to catch my breath.

The canine laughed hard at my temporary daze. Growling, I did the same thing to her. Taking both of my hands to drench her fur. "Ha! That's what you get!" I said triumphantly, laughing all the while.

Kayla jumped on top of me. "Pfft, alright." She giggled before laying across my chest, the both of us being soaked with water, panting lightly from the joking around. I gave the fuzzy fox a hug, she returned it to me the best she could with her small arms.

"Let's get inside and change...We smell like wet eevee." I said with a chuckle. Kayla started to growl playfully.

"I don't stink that bad!" She retorted as we both let out a good laugh…

Later on, we were both bathed and dry. Since it was now getting dark, I was preparing dinner, which happened to be tacos. Living on my own, I pretty much became something of my own three star chef. Kayla was helping me out, I really was hoping she would like my cooking.

We ate in the living room and watched tv before simply just going to bed, we had a lot to get ready for tomorrow. Kayla once again was the first to go to sleep, curling up and huddling against me. I rubbed her on her head lightly as a lot of thoughts went through my head, mostly about Kayla. She was in my head a lot lately, the coolest eevee ever. I looked at her for the last time of the night, I slowly closed my eyes and went to sleep...

* * *

 **Guest Reviews: Once again, thanks for your input, Crimson Darkrai. Your advice really helped and I'm glad you liked my ideas. Stay well, dude.**

 **Finally, I hoped that you all enjoyed this chapter. Like I said, this was a laid back chapter, calm before another small storm for me, the writer, and my characters. So while it could have been longer, next chapter is going to have some action again, so I hope you're ready for it. As always, thanks to everybody who has read and enjoyed the story so far! Reviews, comments, all of the like is appreciated greatly for the story! Stay tuned for next time!**


	6. Chapter 6: Beware the Forest's Thieves

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 6**

 **Hey everyone, I'm back with the next installment of The Hidden Truth. Since I don't like spilling information, you'll have to see for yourself what happens this time! I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the amazing people who work at GameFreak and Nintendo, I just happen to own my characters.**

* * *

 **Recap: Kentral decided to spend the day relaxing with his eevee companion, Kayla. Together, they explored the city, eventually running into Blake and his butterfree. Blake offered to take Kentral to get a free watch that lets him see various information on his pokemon. The day ends as the two spend it by the lake, where they initiate a childish splash fight. Today, they plan on finally moving on to the next town, what awaits them this time…?**

I found myself having a strange dream about Kayla the night before. The skies were clear so the sun bathed us in the warmth it had to offer. The two of us were back in Pallet Town, though no one was around. It was a rather happy dream, we laid together, played, practice new battle skills…She kept smiling at me for some reason, which was something I was glad to see. The dream was rather short, I wish I could have made it last longer. Unfortunately, when I awoke from my sleep, it already happened to be near seven thirty in the morning.

Blinking my eyes a few times to adjust, I started to rouse Kayla awake. Slowly, she eased her eyes open. It reminded me of the first time I had to wake her up, she was a deep sleeper then, and now I could wake her up easily.

She gave a wide yawn before greeting me. "Morning, Ken. We heading out already…?" She spoke with a lazy voice and I gave her a nod.

"Yeah, we have a lot of ground to cover. We're heading through Route 2 and then Viridian Forest, so...yeah. We'll be pretty busy. I gotta pack everything." I informed her, sliding out of bed. Kayla followed behind my lead.

We made sure that we packed everything, Kayla was definitely a big help, carrying to me whatever small stuff I almost left behind. Not planning on lingering around, the two of us left the room and then soon out of the pokemon center, saying goodbye and thanks to the nurse on our way out.

The two of us were leaving the big city, now heading for a somewhat smaller city named Pewter, which was north of where we were. The size of the city was limited because it was built around Mount Moon, I was excited to get there and see for myself.

While we walked, Kayla continuously bumped into my leg. It was annoyingly funny, if that sounds right. Playing along with the childish games for a bit, I scooped up the vee from where she stood. She was surprised but didn't make a gasp or anything like I thought she would.

I held her almost like how someone would hold their baby. She looked up at me with that big smile again. "Thanks, my legs were tired." She playfully remarked.

"Oh who said I was done with you?" I spoke back, using my free hand to tickle her belly, which she let out an outburst of a laugh as her response. It made me laugh too. Her limbs were getting sore just trying to remove my hand, too bad she was in my grasp.

"So you still wanna continue this war?" I asked, with a playfully sinister grin.

"N-No, I'll stop. I'll stop!" She said through her laughs, tears of tickle torture streaming down from her eyes. Finally, I withdrew my hand, confident with my winnings.

"For now anyway…" I heard her mutter under her breath, proceeding to nuzzle my chin as I carried her. "I'll get you back."

The nuzzle she gave was sort of a tickle itself, I couldn't tell why it left me with an awkward blush. "You can try…" I trailed off laughing, not bothering to finish the sentence.

 **Route 2**

We were at Route 2 now, it didn't look too different than Route 1. It seemed like this place would be an even shorter path. Then again, the forest also counts as Route 2, as well as the rest of the way to the city. We had no choice but to go through the forest, as the pathway around takes some serious climbing skills, those of which I don't have. Also there was the fact Diglett's Cave would block the way.

"What's Viridian Forest like?" Kayla asked me, who was still being carried in my arms.

"In short, most see it as a maze. There are many pathways, a lot of which eventually would lead to dead ends. There's only one way out, and that's the human made exit. It's something like a rest stop for travelers, we should be nearing one before we enter the forest soon." I commented, looking at what's ahead.

"Oh, okay. Can we eat something though? I'm a little hungry.." Kayla added.

A few minutes later, we set a temporary picnic spot. Luckily, I was able to pack a lot of food for the trip, but we only ate what we needed. Basic resourcefulness. While we ate though, Kayla's ears perked up as she looked pass me, into the trees.

Curious, I turned my head, seeing a lot of pokemon scurrying through said trees, seeming to be in a hurry...well, more like panic.

"Wonder what's with all of them?" Kayla whispered to me. I didn't really have a response besides a shrug of my shoulders.

"I dunno...I just hope we don't run into it." I stated, she gave me a nod of agreement…

After we were all done eating, we kept heading north, soon reaching the rest stop that I told Kayla about. A few other trainers were around, seeming that they either had a journey ahead, or that they've just been through one. The two of us didn't want to waste any time here, so when we both nodded towards each other, we continued on our quest.

 **Viridian Forest**

The forest, it was dense. Trees towered far above our head, making us barely able to see anything pass them. The only thing we saw upward besides the trees was the afternoon sky, a few clouds hovering with it. Looking around, there was no clear path of where to go. This made me wonder why all these years they have never bothered to put any arrows...but then again, this is like a test for both trainers and pokemon alike so it didn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would.

Kayla and I looked around. "There are four paths from what I can see…" I told the vee, squinting my eyes.

"Look closer…" Kayla said. Glaring at the woods around us almost in a nervous way. "Those paths only turn into more and more paths." She added.

Scratching my head, confused beyond words. Here we were at the entrance, already lost. "Well, we won't get anywhere until we at least try, right? Let's give it a shot." I announced with a sense of pride. Kayla nodded an enthusiastic agreement.

"Yes sir!" She cheered.

* * *

"Wrong way."

"Nope...wrong again."

"Dang, another dead end?"

"Okay, this is rather ridiculous…"

"Wait, how we ended up here again!"

Getting lost, it never seemed to end, over and over again. Each time we ran into a dead end, and we had to go back and try a different one. Running into annoying trainers that littered the area wanting to battle rather than to give a tip, and running back into paths that we already passed. I wasn't even sure if we were covering new ground anymore. It almost drove me insane.

"Ugh…" I groaned, dragging the palm of my hand across my face plopping myself to the ground. Kayla offered me some comfort by nuzzling against me. It calmed me down by a lot, but I felt nearly hopeless at this point. We've been walking around for nearly two hours by now and my feet were starting to ache. Of course, Kayla was fine being made for this kind of workout.

"We should take a break, sound good?" Kayla asked me.

"Yeah, I think that's a good plan…" I responded while the both of us took time to get comfortable where we were. We sat there for a while, just simply resting our bones as a pleasant breeze blew across our skin and fur. It was rather fulfilling to see the blades of grass sway with the wind, like waves of grass from a green ocean. All remained quiet between the two of us before Kayla asked me a question.

"Hey Kentral?" I heard from Kayla, causing me to sit up and face her way.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Why didn't you have a pokemon partner before me? Didn't you ever want one?" Kayla asked, I could see the curiosity in the look she gave me.

I took a moment to try and think of the answer, it hasn't really been something I thought too deeply about, especially since Kayla became my partner. "I dunno really...now that I think about it. Probably because I was so content with the family I had back in the day, it didn't really come to mind." I answered.

"What do you mean? What's wrong with your family?" She asked again, seemingly begging to know the answers.

"It's just that parts of my family are missing. My mother and father to be honest, I haven't seen them in nearly four years." I told the eevee, she was quiet for a moment. Then she just curled against me, she seemed heartbroken.

"Wow, same here...A group of poachers took them away. My mother was a Vaporeon while my father was a Jolteon." Kayla responded with her ears flattening. I looked at her, truly wishing I didn't give her the complete truth because of how depressed she suddenly looked. I rubbed against her head lightly before giving her a hug, she returned it, sniffling, but not crying. Her tail softly swayed.

"I'm sorry to hear that, maybe we'll both find out what happened to our parents one day…" I told her, giving her a smile that was returned to me.

"Even if we don't...that's okay. Because at least I have you now, and you're definitely a member of my family." The vee licked my cheek as she said this. Now I was starting to understand a little more about why she wanted to travel with me so bad...at that point I promised to myself that I would do whatever I could to help find her parents, no matter what. I could tell seeing them again would be better than any christmas present, and I really wanted to make her that happy.

We were both soon falling victim to the sandman for a little nap. It could have lasted for hours until a screech like sound rammed across our ears, making us both shoot up from the slumber we were in.

"What was that!?" I shouted being quick to snap awake. Then we heard it again, this time more clearly. It sounded a lot more like screams and battle cries. It was somewhere in the deeper woods where trainers normally wouldn't go. I turned towards Kayla.

"Hey, do you think you can navigate your way toward the sound? You're hearing is super keen." I asked Kayla who gave me a nod.

"Sure thing, let's get moving!" Kayla responded.

Our feet were racing, continuously stomping their way through the grass in a hurry to see what was up in the deep woods. The sounds only got clearer with the distance we closed. The two of us stopped as we saw a huge beedrill heading towards our way! We both panicked!

"Kayla, duck!" I shouted tackling the fox pokemon out of the way of the beedrill who passed us, but it wasn't for long because a net soon captured him, yanking it back where it came from.

"The heck is going on here?" I whispered, seeing other pokemon like rattata, metapod, and weedle trying to get away from something meet the same fate of the net as the beedrill and being pulled back. The nets were attached to long pieces of rope, it worked much like a harpoon, just without the spear.

Kayla started to growl as she saw the other pokemon being captured, that was our cue to keep moving forward and put a stop to this. Keeping low, using the grass as our camouflage, we headed towards the commotion. The two of us neared a small clearing When we took a peak of what was ahead, we saw that it was none other than those orange wearing goons who worked for Team X. Six of them were at work, pinching pokemon and keeping them imprisoned in those nets they couldn't break out of. Three pokemon stood as their guard. There was a raticate, meowth, and a poliwhirl.

There were a few pokemon that were resisting the onslaught and fighting them back. A farfetch'd, pidgeotto, and the most noticeable one, a bulbasaur. Bulbasaur were usually super rare, I couldn't believe I was seeing one so soon despite their popularity.

The three heroes were fighting well but the continued onslaught from both the enemy pokemon as well as the Team X men trying to pinch them at the same time. It was starting to wear them down.

"We gotta keep fighting! Stay strong!" The Bulbasaur growled, jumping into the air and whipping out his vines, which were successful in cutting through the ropes and nets that tried to catch them. We both could tell he was the leader out of the rebels. I couldn't just let ourselves sit on the sidelines anymore.

"Alright Kayla, it's time to use your new move. Use Swift on 'em!" I ordered. Kayla nodded before jumping onto the battlefield, when she whipped her tail forward, solid stars magically shot from her, pelting those annoying guys as well as their pokemon who took a lot of damage with it. I stood behind her, ready to back her up if any tried getting too close.

The three rebels started looking at us. "Who are they…?" The farfetch'd asked.

"We're just here to help." I said, glaring at the Team X thugs. I couldn't see it, but they had surprised faces, possibly because they never heard a human understand exactly what they're saying.

"Don't worry about it for now, we're still in a big fight." The bulbasaur warned.

"Who the fuck are...Oh, yeah. You're real familiar, a trainer with an eevee. Have we heard a lot. The boss would love to get her hands on you.

"You should watch your mouth!" The pidgeotto yelled before charging towards the poliwhirl with a powerful Wing Attack while he was distracted. The poliwhirl flew back and hit the ground hard.

"That was a low blow you damn bird!" One of the thugs threatened. "Get all of them, and capture that fucking eevee too!"

Without any other words, all nine of our enemies charged the five of us. Sweat dripped down my face as I knew we were probably in for a lot of bumps and bruises.

"Let's do this guys!" The bulbasaur roared, with his two avian friends echoing him. Seeing how they were risking their lives for their friends and home. That gave the two of us some inspiration.

Three of the thugs and the meowth came to jump the two of us, by now they dropped their nets as they were ready to do us in. I was hoping the few self defense classes I had would help, because the Bond Orb was more of a hit or miss.

The meowth extended its claws, giving an evil snicker before she charged at Kayla with Furry Swipes, while one of the thugs tried continuously to catch her. But she proved to fast.

One of them charged toward me, me being able to slide out of the way was a string a luck but it faded when I found a pair of arms wrapping around my neck. The other guy proceeded to trying to choke me, the other one who tried charging me came cracking his knuckles.

I feared for my life before a vine grabbed onto one of his arms, slightly releasing his grip off of me. The bulbasaur who gave that assistance was fending off two of the men with his other vine. With room for my head to move now, I opened my jaws and chomped down towards the man's wrist, which made him quickly recoil. "Damn you!"

The other tried to knock me out right there, but once again I proved too quick and ducked over him, trying to catch my breath. Extending my leg, I was able to make the guy trip onto his stomach, where I proceeded to stomp him right there on his back as hard as I could with the boots that I wore.

"Get your lazy ass up and help me!" He yelled as I stomped him, the other guy being quick to get back in the game. I picked up the nearest thing on the ground, which was a feeble stick.

"Heheheh...you think you can do anything with that? Dumbass…" He muttered as he crept closer without me doing a thing, and when he got close enough…

"Augh! Fuck!" He screamed as I swiped at his eyes with the stick, blood was well flying out from his face now. I don't know what I grabbed, but his face was starting to swell and getting super itchy, which I could only tell from the constant scratching he gave before he fell down to the ground, holding his face as it burned.

When I turned back over to Kayla, she was just finishing off the meowth, she had cuts across her tail and her fur was ruffled up, but Kayla seemed fine, much to my happiness. Seeing that one of the guys now had a broken spine, and the other had severe burns on his face father than I could imagine...we were done.

I fell down to my knees and started panting, trying my best to catch my breath. Looking back over to the forest pokemon, the farfetch'd had ended up cutting part of the raticate's teeth off thanks to the staff their species always carried, I didn't know that was possible. The pidgeotto was still getting a fight from that poliwhirl, and the bulbasaur was fighting off two of the thugs still. _Now that I thought about it...two of them just disappeared!_

A whistle could be heard in the background, everyone who happened to be present was stuck in a state of exhaustion and wondered what was happening now. Two of the thugs walked out, "Get everybody out of here, we got what we need! Let's go!" One of them yelled.

The two who were fighting the bulbasaur threw something like a smoke bomb at the three rebels, when it cleared, they were dead asleep. Before me and Kayla could stop them we were sprayed in our eyes with something that made our eyes burn like crazy! We screamed in agony as we held our faces, some of the feet that ran by kicked me into the side, sending me rolling across the clearing as I coughed up blood from the sheer pain.

"You're lucky that we have work to do, pest. But trust me, we'll finish this beat down the next time you run into Team X. See ya!" One of them laughed near maniacally as everything fell silent. We were still blind for about half an hour before our eyes could open, but it felt like hours. I held my side, my whole body ached from that onslaught of kicking while I couldn't see.

Kayla looked a lot more beat up than she originally was, but she was still standing. I was beginning to swear vengeance on those menace...but I worried about the pokemon first. Now, night was coming upon us, but I could still see the blood that ran across everybody's body, including my own.

I walked over to the three pokemon, Kayla following me. They looked awful. The pidgeotto's feathers were soaked, meaning that it can't fly for a while until their dried. That's fatal for a bird pokemon. I pulled out a towel from my slightly tarnished bag that thankfully wasn't stolen. I dried her up before I laid the towel over her.

Kayla dropped something next to my feet, it was the staff that farfetch'd would use to defend itself. It was brand new...as the one he had was ruined with raticate's teeth stuck inside. I patched him and the pidgeotto up with bandages and such before turning my attention to the seed dino. He seemed to have taken the most heat.

I sat down next to the three, pulling out all of my potions and bandages, I went to work patching all of us up. We all just had bleeding and bruises, though I would actually have to see a doctor eventually about my sore body, but I was thinking it may wear off eventually. All that mattered was that everyone of us were alive.

"You alright Kayla?" I asked her, she gave a slow nod and held out her small paw.

"Good job." She said smiling, the two of us high fived/pawed?

"Let's rest for now...my body hurts too much to move and we need extra strength if we're going to find our way out of here." I advised.

"Right." She agreed. The two of us took a spot on the other side of the clearing. Pulling out the sleeping bag, the two of us were quick to snuggle up inside…

* * *

 **The Bulbasaur's View:**

"Hey, c'mon Ryan. Wake up." A voice whispered to me, causing me to slowly open my eyes and seeing Sora the pidgeotto.

"You okay, man?" Whispered another, which was no other than Stephen, the farfetch'd. With my two buddies safe, I was able to give a sigh of relief. Slowly, I stood up on my four legs. My body felt sore, but the pain was dying down to an annoying numbness.

"Who patched us up?" I asked, looking at the bandages on the three of us. Stephen pointed his wing over toward the west. When I looked over that way, I saw that dude with the eevee, asleep on the other side of the clearing.

"That dude? For a kid he puts up a fight." I walked over to them, looking them over.

"Not bad for a human." Sora said.

"He can understand us right?" I asked to myself, starting to shake the boy and eevee awake.

* * *

 **Kentral's View:**

I could feel vines starting to grab and shake me, wobbling me around. Quickly, I snapped up to attention, Kayla seeming to have just been waking up too. The both of us rubbed our eyes before we saw the bulbasaur, pidgeotto, and farfetch'd, bringing back the memories of what happened a few hours ago.

"Oh, it's you guys...glad to see you're doing okay." I spoke, my voice not hiding the exhaustion I felt.

"Hey, thanks for helping us out back there. I don't think we would've still been in this forest without your help." The bulbasaur spoke up for the others, giving off a low growl. "I swear this'll be the last time they steal pokemon from this forest…"

At that, Kayla's ears perked. "Wait, you mean they've been here before?" She asked, the three pokemon nodded.

"Yeah, they've been poaching our friends and all for three months straight, we're the main three who stand up for the others who still are here. Ryan leading us." The farfetch'd said, pointing towards his bulbasaur buddy.

"Dang, we've been picking fights back and forth since we two became partners, so this isn't the first we've seen of them either. They go by Team X." I told them, the three listening up as they got what little information I have of them.

"We have a common enemy then." The bulbasaur said to himself. "Well, name's Ryan. These two are Sora and Stephen, buddies of mine. We swore when this first happened to do whatever it takes to keep everyone who was still here safe, and now we have a bit of a lead. By the way, what's some kids like you two doing back this far into the forest?" Ryan asked.

"Believe it or not, the two of us became lost, and we heard a lot of noises before running down here." I said, remembering the huge fight that went down.

"Well, I guess I could show you two the way out, if you want." Ryan said, Kayla's face lit up when she heard it, so did mine.

"Thanks!" We both said in unison.

With that, Ryan led us toward the way to the northern exit of the forest, his friends following close behind us, making it somewhat awkward but I didn't mind.

"Thanks so much Ryan. Hopefully we'll see each other again someday." I told him, Kayla's smile showing the same. Ryan nodded towards the two of us and watched us as we left.

Kayla and I sat down on the seats of the empty rest stop, me still feeling some of the effects of my aching body. "You gonna be okay right?" Kayla asked, worried about seeing me in this condition. I nodded.

"Yeah, don't worry." I smiled.

The two of us were planning on staying there for another few minutes to rest, which we did. When we were about to leave we then heard a slightly familiar voice.

"Hey, wait!"

The two of us turned back, seeing Ryan the bulbasaur running to catch up with us. My face was speaking all sorts of confusion, wondering what he could have possibly needed.

"Yeah?" Kayla asked him. Ryan paused there for a moment.

"I wanted to ask...could I go with you?" Ryan asked, making the two of us shocked.

"Wait, what? Why do you wanna go with us?" I questioned.

"Well...since you seem to be a good trainer, I thought about going with you so I could grow stronger and take back the forest pokemon from Team X. I want to be the best leader I can, and it's a hard decision to make...but I believe in Sora and Stephen to protect it, and gather more pokemon who want to protect it. So...can I?" He asked, rather sincerely from the sound of it. It was easy to tell how serious he was about this, and I wasn't able to turn him away when I knew what he went through. Kayla seemed inspired by his words, and so was I.

"Yeah, welcome aboard!" I said as enthusiastically as my tired body would allow.

"Welcome to the team!" Kayla cheered. Ryan gave the both of us a friendly slap on the back with his vines, which stung a bit but we knew it was the equivalent to a pat on the back. Ryan grinned at the two of us as I pulled out a pokeball.

"I'm sure you know about pokeballs and stuff." I said, Ryan nodding at me. Once again, I would rather him hang out with us than stay in the ball. Pressing the button before the bulbasaur disappeared inside the ball with a flash of red light. It shook lightly in my hands before giving a 'ding'. With that, I let Ryan out.

"You can stay out with us, there's no point in keeping you in there. Unless you feel like you truly can't walk." I said. Ryan shook his head in disagreement.

"Yeah, I'll stick to walking with you." He told us with a grin.

Scooping up my tired Kayla into my arms, we went ahead for the rest of our walk towards Pewter City through Route 2. Ryan was walking ahead of me, despite still being injured, it really showed his determination, and that was something I respected. It was well past midnight, and the three of us would probably be sleeping in.

With all that has happened today, I still felt a sense of pride, especially with the new addition of our team. We may have lost a battle, but there was no way I considered losing the war. Kayla, Ryan, and I were all going for similar goals...Finding out the mysteries of our past, becoming stronger, and taking on whatever came in our way, especially Team X. It was night, but the future was starting to make the night sky look a little brighter...

* * *

 **There you go everyone, Chapter 6! I certainly hope that you enjoyed it. Also, what do you think of Ryan and his crew? Looks like Ryan is going to be sticking with Kentral and Kayla for more adventures across Kanto. Thank you, all to those that have read and enjoyed the story so far, as well as support me with feedback. If you can, review, comment, or give feedback on this chapter! It would be kindly appreciated. Stick around for the next update, I'll see you next time!**


	7. Chapter 7: Your Love Makes Me Stronger

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 7**

 **What's up everyone. Welcome to Chapter 7 of The Hidden Truth. I wasn't gone too long, right? I also hope that you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: Pokemon is owned by the amazing people who work at GameFreak and Nintendo, I just happen to own my characters.**

* * *

 **Recap: Kentral has a strange dream about Kayla with no explanation behind it. The two partners head to Route 2 and then to Viridian Forest, where chaos went down. It turns out that Team X was back at it again, poaching pokemon for their own purposes. Kentral and Kayla meet with Ryan, a bulbasaur, and his allies while fighting off the threat. With a call to retreat, Kentral and co. quickly find themselves losing the battle with harsh consequences. Team X has gotten away with a lot of pokemon, and left a couple of their marks on our heroes. After an embarrassing defeat Ryan makes a tough decision, and now he decides to travel with Kayla and Kentral so he can grow stronger and save his people. What's new this time…?**

 **Pewter City**

 _We finally made it to Pewter a few hours before the morning sun could take over the skies. Appearing in the pokemon center the way that we did, there was no doubt I had some questions to answer. Simply put, the nurse and the nurse pokemon helped to clean up Kayla and Ryan. I, on the other hand, had to go see an actual doctor to be cleaned. Morning had already hit us before we could finally get ourselves a room in the pokemon center and rest at last. Of course, I closed off all sources of light, from the windows, electricity, It didn't matter. We were asleep for a couple of hours...not bothering to wake up until the afternoon, where we would soon be getting back to business…_

I gave a yawn as I slid myself out of bed that afternoon. Believe it or not, I was getting rather used to the schedule of the trainer life, even if was about twelve in the afternoon. I looked back over to the bed, seeing Kayla who was just a moment ago pressed up to me. She was curled up, looking more stunning than ever thanks to the brilliant work of the nurse.

" _I should check on Ryan,"_ I thought to myself.

I dragged my body into taking its first couple of steps for the day into the small living room. Ryan made himself an obvious independent pokemon, especially when one would consider that he was raised in the woods and protected it for most of his life. It definitely deserved my respect.

Ryan snoozed, asleep on the couch, just as he said he would the night before. It was going to take some work to make a friend out of the bulbasaur, but at least we all were starting off rather well. As a result, I decided to not pressure it, and let him open up when he was ready.

I went back into my room and grabbed a change of clothes and a towel before I walked into the bathroom.

…

After taking my usual fifteen minute shower, I proceeded to get dressed for the day. I decided to wear the black and red hoodie that Kayla wanted me to have so bad, so I slipped that over my arms after putting on a plain black shirt. I slid on my pair of cargo pants and my shoes before I washed my hands in the sink. From there, I decided that it was time to start making some breakfast.

I decided simplicity was the best strategy and made some eggs, grilled sausage, and some fresh toast to top it off. I thought about our new partner as well, and being some type of plant, I doubted Ryan would have any taste for sausage. Luckily, I already had a solution and started to sauté some greens for the grass dinosaur.

The wonderful aroma of a good way to start the day fluttered through the house, and it wouldn't take long for Kayla to burst into the kitchen with great speed, Ryan following behind her. I could tell we all were starving.

"Good morning, Kentral!" Kayla greeted with a smile before she jumped up to lick my cheek, a high jump it was too.

I chuckled at her enthusiasm as I set the plates on the table and pulled out the chairs for everyone. "Morning to you too," I greeted back before I turned to Ryan. "How'd you sleep?" I asked him.

"Pretty good, I'm all rested up and ready to go." Ryan told me, a determined look in his eyes as I grinned.

"I'm glad to hear it, let's eat so we can start the day already," I told the both of them.

There wasn't much words going around the table as we all ate. Since everyone was ready to get out of the room and get outside again, it didn't take any of us long to finish our meal.

After I made sure I had what I needed for the day, we headed outside of the pokemon center and we were finally met with outdoors once again.

Pewter City, the small city that was nested between the rugged mountains. This would be our first time actually seeing the city with a pair of fresh eyes. There was quite a bit of grass growing for a city, as well as slopes and hills in the roads. It almost seemed like a town or village. We were very close to Mount Moon after all, so that was more than likely the main reason for the oddities this city had to offer. Nonetheless, I found it rather interesting to look at.

"So," I said, turning towards my two partners and catching their attention, Kayla's ears perking up. "What do you guys wanna do? We could maybe take a break today of you guys want," I suggested to them.

"Actually," Ryan spoke up. "I rather go and train, if that's okay with you two." Ryan admitted, staring at me with that determined look once again.

I couldn't help but agree with him, not only did we get our butts handed to us the day before, but Ryan lost a lot of his friends due to our failure. I certainly did not want to turn his plea down.

I nodded to the bulbasaur before turning to Kayla. "What about you?" I asked the fox.

"Training sounds good! It would be good practice for the next gym battle too!" Kayla suggested happily before I gave her a nod.

I would have to eventually learn how Ryan handled his battles. It would be good to work on specific battle strategies with him while we were at it.

With that debate out of our way, we were eventually on our way back to Route 2 so we could continue our training..

 **Route 2**

"Kayla watch out!" I yelled to Kayla.

She quickly reacted to the vines that were about to strike her, Ryan's vine whip easily tore through the grass and slammed into the ground, making some dust fly. Another narrow dodge.

Kayla made the suggestion that we saw how Ryan battled by having her be his sparing partner. His attacks were strong, but he wasn't too quick on his feet. This wasn't a surprise to me, being that he was a bulbasaur. Despite this, he used his vine whip to his advantage seeing that Kayla had far superior speed, and he was even able to hit her a few times. I had to admit he was rather nimble for the stubby grass dinosaur.

Kayla looked at me for directions again before I decided to call it off. "Okay, I think that's good, you've been going at it time and again for a few hours," I said with a chuckle.

The two pokemon walked over to me, as I kneeled down to them and used a few potions on their slightly bruised bodies.

"How did I do, Kentral?" Kayla asked me, her smile bringing out her confidence in her abilities more than ever.

"You did great of course, you're the best eevee out there if I ever met any others," I said with a chuckle as she hugged my arm, her tail swishing back and forth as a blush appeared on her cheeks.

Ryan stared at the two of us, perhaps he was wondering how he was in battle too. "You were pretty great, dude. The only weakness I can see us your speed. Though your vine whip can make up for it, your take down attack is powerful and useless if your enemies are too quick," I said to him truthfully.

"I see.." he said, looking down to the ground.

I can tell that he wanted to reach his peak, he knew he would have to in order to save all of his friends. I couldn't blame him one bit, but it didn't mean it was over just yet.

"I wouldn't worry about it, your not a pokemon meant for speed. But I will definitely work with you on it the best I can, you're still a pretty good fighter who can handle yourself, and that deserves a lot of respect," I told him, a smile on my face as I held my fist up to him.

He stared at it for a moment, before returning my fist bump with a bump of his vine. A vine bump, if you will.

Ryan had a smile on his face now, and he nodded to me. "Thank you, Kentral," he told me as I gave him a thumbs up. Kayla seemed happy about it too.

"Ken," Kayla said, letting go of my arm finally. "Could we maybe sleep outside again?" she asked.

Since she was a pokemon, it was only natural for her to want to be in the great outdoors from time to time. I nodded to her.

"Seems like a good idea to me," I agreed, Ryan nodding his head at the idea as well. "Good thing I prepared just in case you asked,"

I pulled off my bag and pulled out the tent I had folded up inside, as well as the stakes that would allow it to stand up once it was set. Ryan walked a little closer to me.

"Need some help?" he asked me, extending out his vines at the ready. Kayla and I smiled.

 **Later That Evening…**

Setting up the tent took a lot longer than what I would have liked. Since I never got the chance to learn how to set one up, it took a while to understand the directions, which I could barely find on a crumpled up piece of paper in my bag. Nonetheless it was a fun experience with Ryan and Kayla helping me out. Some would wonder how a little quadruped fox with no hands could possibly help me with setting up a tent. Let's just say that I was surprised the tent didn't catch on fire by her touching it after the first few minutes. Ryan just seemed to watch the two of us as we had our fun with it. Compared to us, he seemed not only mature at times, but also skilled at setting up a tent better than I could.

After the tent was set up, I suggested that we should start a fire just in case. Kayla thought it was an excellent idea while Ryan agreed, I was surprised he had no fear at the mention of a fire around him, he must have seen his share of battles.

Ryan went to go collect and chop wood with his sharp vines while Kayla and I searched for charcoal. Kayla claimed that she had a nose for finding rocks and had remembered that she had the scent of charcoal and flint registered in her nose. With that, I allowed her to lead the way.

Kayla had her nose to the ground sniffing through the dirt and whatever was around her. I could only imagine whether or not we would find what we needed out here, but Kayla seemed to know what she was doing. Though it wouldn't be bad to have a fire type so it could be easier I believed in my foxy friend.

"Got some, down here!" Kayla exclaimed happily with a grin before she started to dig kicking up dirt and dust behind her. I had to quickly side step out of the way so I wouldn't get a mouthful of dirt.

"Really? You sure?" I asked, looking to where she was digging.

"People just drop some very useful things sometimes, and most people don't know how good an eevee can smell. I heard people say some have a better sense of smell than a growlithe." she announced proudly, pointing to the spot she dug.

I kneeled down to her level and took a look, and what I saw was some charcoal and flint, she was right but I couldn't help but wonder why they were in the same place like that. Maybe some people were camping near here too.

"Great work! I didn't know you had an amazing sense of smell like that," I told her, a smile on my face as I scooped up the new materials and placed them in my pocket. Kayla giggled, blushing from the praise.

"Hehe thanks, and you know what else I'm good at?" the fox asked, her face giving me a nearly evil grin, and it was one I instantly recognized.

"Kayla, I don't know what you're doing but don't you dare," I warned, narrowing my eyes towards her as she continued to giggle.

"Is big bad Ken gonna stop me?" she teased, sticking her tongue out at me before she kicked a bunch of dirt onto my fresh clothes. I was looking so nice today!

"Oh you're in the doghouse now" I nearly barked with an evil grin as I started to give chase to the eevee, who ran as fast as her little legs could take her, and that was pretty fast.

Still, I couldn't help but notice that I was a lot faster than what I used to be due to my travels so far. I wasn't catching Kayla anytime soon, but I felt good knowing that I was improving along with my partner.

As I ran after that sly fox, the instantly noticed the moment she started to slow down. Was she still exhausted from the practice match with Ryan, I could not tell, but I didn't care. I thought my lungs would burn out but I forced my body to move at speeds I didn't even think was possible for me. I held my hands out to grab her, clenching my fingers as I prepared for my strike.

"Gotcha!" I yelled triumphantly as I dive down to the eevee to finally capture her and put her in her place. Just in that split second, she looked back to me with a cocky smirk before her speed boosted ten fold with her quick attack.

Time seemed to slow down to a bear stand still, everything turned into black and white as my body impacted the ground and skidding, kicking up dust behind me, as if Kayla's quick attack didn't kick up enough on me. Bamboozled again.

As I layed there in defeat, my eyes scrolled up as I was met with Kayla's backside as she taunted me. She was getting trickier by the day.

"Move your butt," I told Kayla with a laugh, playfully pushing her out of my way as I sat up. My clothes were completely dirty, but I had no hard feelings. I actually liked playing with Kayla and I expected for things like this to happen from time to time.

"I'll definitely be aware of that trick next time." I said as she giggled as she nuzzled her head into my arm affectionately, a blush on her face. She seemed to blush a lot around me lately, but I tried not to worry about it too much seeing as how I was blushing a little as well.

"I bet you will, nothing wrong with a game every now and again right?" she told me with a wink as the two of us laughed.

Another thing I was noticing about her was that she was showing far more confidence in herself and her actions, even the things she said sometimes. I found myself more intrigued about her as time went on, and I certainly enjoyed any moment we spent together, no matter what the situation.

She took me in the best hug she could give with her tiny limbs, the both of us smiling before I hugged her back. There was a warm feeling in my heart, one that made me not want to let her go before we heard a voice.

"Guys, I have the wood, you know, if you two are done," said a teasing voice.

The two of us turned around to see who it was, finding Ryan with a smirk on his face, tapping his foot on the ground as his vines held several pieces of tree bark easily.

Kayla quickly let go of me, giving Ryan a nervous chuckle as her entire face seemed to go red. I stood up to my feet and dusted myself off, chuckling with her as I put a hand behind my head.

"Our bad, how long were you waiting there?" I asked the bulbasaur.

"Just long enough," he said with a laugh before he started to head back to the campsite. Kayla and I were soon to follow him back there, blushes on both of our faces..

 **...**

"There we go!" I exclaimed as I finally brought the flame to life, its beautiful orange and yellow glow reflecting in our eyes and on our bodies as the moon and stars took over the skies. The area around us was also casted in that beautiful glow, bringing warmth to the three of us.

We sat a good distance away from the fire as its smoke levitated into the air. "I packed some sandwiches for us if you guys are hungry," I told them, laying down so I could look at the fire.

Kayla pressed her body next to mine and layed her tail over my back. Even if I didn't need the extra warmth, I didn't mind it from Kayla at all.

"I don't really know if I'm too hungry right now," Ryan said, looking over to me as I already began to devour one of the sandwiches.

I took a hard swallow before I looked his way. "That's fine, I don't really think Kayla's too hungry either," I told him, feeling her body expand and compress with each breath she took. Seeing that she was definitely asleep, I chuckled a little.

"Maybe she has the right idea. Hey, what do you think about joining our gym battle? I was thinking about heading to the local gym tomorrow and I already know Kayla would be up for it," I told him.

"I've heard about those, battles that truly test the strength and wits of a trainer and their pokemon. Sure, I don't see why not" Ryan said with a small smile as my eyes lit up.

"Awesome!" I exclaimed in a whisper due to Kayla's sleeping form being right next to me. "We better get some rest then." I told him, scooping some nearby dirt onto the fire and stomping it out.

Once I was done attending to the last flames of our fire, Ryan and I headed towards the tent, me carrying Kayla in my arms and placing her on the floor next to where I planned to sleep. I grabbed a blanket for Ryan while I pulled out my normal sleeping bag where Kayla and I would sleep together. After I nested Kayla in the bag the way she usually slept, I looked toward Ryan.

"Night." I told him before slipping myself into the sleeping bag and closing my eyes.

"Good night, my friends.." I heard him say, causing a small smile to show on my face..

* * *

 **An Hour Later…**

 **Kayla's View:**

Something started to shake my body while I was inside of our sleeping bag, stirring me awake. My eyes tried to blink a few times before they slowly calm open, though only half lidded. I mumbled a little as I recognized it to be Ryan's vines. What could he need at this hour?

I poked my head out from the sleepy bag, my vision slowly becoming less blurry as I looked at Ryan who wasn't standing far from Kentral and I. Seeing that I was awake, he finally withdrew his vines.

"So how long did it take?" I asked him. Ryan tilted his head at my question as a smile came on my face.

"What do you mean?" he asked me.

"To wake me up, had a hard time?" I asked again, this time he nodded.

"I couldn't get you up if your life was in danger, you sleep like a rock," he answered, chuckling a bit.

I crawled out of the sleeping bag and stretched my limbs, my tongue curling back and tail sticking up as I yawned. I proceeded to shake my fur out, my long ears slapping against the side of my face as they always did.

"So what do you need?" I asked Ryan, finally feeling myself wake up fully.

"I just wanted to talk, if that's fine. I probably should have waited until the morning." he told me, I waved him off with a swoosh of my paw.

"It's okay, I can talk." I told him, a smile on my face as I kept in mind to keep quiet, as Kentral was still asleep.

With that, Ryan motioned me to follow him outside. After he walked outside the tent, I turned to Kentral, a bigger smile coming on my face as I saw him. "I'll be back," I whispered to him, peeking behind me to make sure no one was watching me before I kissed him on the forehead and walked outside of the tent to meet Ryan.

"You sure like to wake people up at night now that I think about it," I told Ryan with a giggle once I was outside. I sat down and got comfortable. "So go ahead, what do ya need to talk about?"

"Just wondering, how long have you and Kentral known each other?" Ryan asked me.

I could tell that he was curious by the tone of his voice but I didn't quite understand why he was curious about it in the first place, though I was beginning to have a clue..

I looked up to the stars as I thought about his question, each star I laid my eyes upon reminded me of a day I got to spend with Kentral as my friend and partner, and while their weren't that many in that case, each star held a lot of memories that I shared with him on those days.

"Honestly, I think it's maybe been a week or so. Wow, it feels a lot longer than that," I answered, looking back to my fellow pokemon as he nodded to me.

"You two seem close, really close. Especially considering that you haven't known him for long," Ryan said, extending a vine and bringing it to his chin. He appeared to be thinking about something.

It made me start to think of everyday since the day I met him. "Well, he's not just a really nice person, but a great one too," I said, looking at Ryan. "He's done a lot for me, taken me as his partner and friend. He gave me his companionship when nobody used to care that I existed. He always gives me credit and praise and it makes me feel good. He was the first person I met ever who said he wasn't good enough for me… Yet, we're still best friends." I said, looking down to the ground, a blush appearing on my face. "Someone like him, I will always hold close to my heart…"

I never really believed I would he telling anyone this so soon yet here we were. I only wished I could tell Kentral how I felt about him. Despite that I have gotten much more used to being around him, I was still so shy. A pokemon liking a human that way, that just sounded crazy, and I was glad I didn't tell Ryan that much.

Ryan nodded to me, still seeming to be with his thoughts. I was glad he at least understood a little bit about how close Kentral and I were.

"Just one more question, do you like Kentral? As in, something more than your friend?" Ryan asked, my eyes shooting open the moment the question was asked.

" _He knows.."_ I thought to myself, remaining silent for a moment as I thought about his question, even though there wasn't much to think about it.

I didn't really want to think about it too much, because every now and again I would think about it, and there would come the possibility of Kentral pushing away or not wanting to be my friend anymore. When I thought about the good possibilities, I would always have some hope in my heart, and I would sleep better at night. While I had these romantic feelings for him, I liked being friends with him too, and I wanted to spend more time with him that way before I would try to go any farther. I definitely liked the thought of both and either way the outcome would be, I certainly hope we could be best friends, while either lovers or just friends.

"It's fine, you can drop it. I already know, so I shouldn't pressure you." Ryan said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I'm sorry, Kayla."

"N-No, don't sweat it," I told him, ironically a bead of sweat dripped down the side of my face. "You were just curious." I said with a giggle.

"Yes. But if there's anything I have to say, you shouldn't let this bother your battle abilities, you are a great fighter and Kentral sees that just as much as I have. I won't pressure you anymore, because it's your decision when you want to tell him. If you care for him that much, then you really will be his most powerful ally, and I'm sure..he will understand your feelings the time you do tell him," Ryan told me before he walked passed me, prepared to head into the tent to go back to sleep.

"Hey, Ryan," I called to him, the bulbasaur soon turning his head so he could see me. "Thank you," I said, a smile forming on my face.

Ryan gave me a smile back. "No problem, friend. You teach me, and I teach you.." he told me before he finally walked in the tent, leaving me with a smile.

" _I'm lucky to have friends like you two.."_

* * *

 **Finally, Chapter 7 is complete! I hope you all enjoyed it! Special thanks to all of my readers who have read and enjoyed our adventure so far! Of course I don't forget to show appreciation to you all with wonderful feedback! I couldn't just leave this story to die, the adventure must go on! Review, and comment, tell me what you like about the story!**

 **Also a little update, because of this new style I'm writing in. I will be updating my previous chapters before posting Chapter 8, which could take quite a while. I only wanted to do Chapter 7 as soon as I could because I wanted you all to know this story was alive as soon as I could. You don't have to read the updated chapters but the descriptions will be much better and have some extra content. Nothing in the story is really changing though. I have no clue if you guys get notices when I replace my chapters with updated versions, if not, it will all be done by the time I post Chapter 8. See you all again next time!**


	8. Chapter 8: Struggles of Being the Hero

**The Hidden Truth**

 **Chapter 8**

 **AN: Hello everyone, welcome to chapter 8 of THT and a late merry Christmas to you all. I've had a lot of things going on lately. Recently got myself a laptop so writing can be a lot easier for me. My job was making me work seven days a week, but hopefully that's over by now. I want to try and increase my update speed nonetheless, you came here for a story after all and not to hear me whine about my personal life.**

 **This chapter is a bit different than the others, but that's how I intended it. It has suggestive themes, hinting at rape and stuff like that. This story is still a far way from lemons, for those of you that are here for it, but they do come later, just much later. I hope you all enjoy, and R &R if you can. I'd appreciate it.**

 **Disclaimer(This is the last time that I'll be using this, so this goes for the rest of the story): GameFreak and Nintendo own pokemon and I am in no way associated with creating the content or any of its characters. I just own my characters, and that's it.**

* * *

 **Recap: Kentral, Kayla and Ryan get healed up in Pewter City after a run in with Team X. In attempts to grow stronger as a team, the trio head back to Route 2 to train for a gym battle. After setting up camp and getting settled in, Ryan and Kayla have a private conversation that reveals the eevee might have some hidden affection for her trainer.**

 **Route 2**

The sun's light began to pierce through my closed eyelids that next morning, which wasn't surprising to me, due to the tent that we slept in being rather thin in its texture. At least it was a good silent alarm for when sunrise came to Kanto. Opening my eyes, I was meet with the roof of the nearly transparent tan tent, finding it somewhat odd that I fell asleep on my back when I usually slept on my side or on my belly instead. Despite my vision being blurry at first, I could tell that it was time to rise and shine.

I turned my head over to my right, seeing that Kayla was still in my sleeping bag, curled up in a ball of soft fluff that seemed to sneak under my arms while I slept. The eevee gave me a warm feeling that made me not want to move away from her. Giving the vixen a smile, I reminded myself that I was always grateful for having her as my partner and my best friend…

I didn't notice him right away, but I could hear Ryan quietly snoring on the other side of the tent. I turned my head in his direction, seeing that his body slightly rose before it fell again with each of his snores, reminding me of the way that Chow slept. I chuckled in silence, deciding to let the two of them sleep. _They deserve a break, with all that training and not to mention the trouble we seem to get ourselves into…_

I finally slipped out of the sleeping bag, barely making any noise while doing so before tip-toeing out of the tent like a ninja. _I guess a walk is a good way to start the day. At least until they wake up. I shouldn't be gone for more than a few minutes..._

* * *

The pidgey were soaring over the tall trees, tweeting their morning song as I strolled through the outskirts of Route 2. The grass rose to my ankles at this point, and felt like a soft cushion for each step I took in contrast to the small stones that I would find myself tripping over every few minutes. Everything seemed peaceful, no thugs around, no anything. Just pure peace, and I was enjoying it while it lasted.

"Heh, even if I did somehow get used to all of that action…" I told myself with a chuckle. "It feels good to not have to fight anyone for a while." Looking back, I really had nobody to blame but myself for always putting myself into these situations, with Kayla just wanting to tag along. I do actually think about leaving it to the authorities, but it always seemed like whenever there was a huge crime organization running around, they never looked like they were doing anything about it.

In a somewhat twisted way, this didn't annoy me in the slightest. The past couple of days have definitely been one of a kind, and in a way, have been a great way to experience life outside of Pallet Town. Through all of the action though, I think that I have made it clear I like those moments when I could just kick back with Kayla and talk to her, play, maybe battle a few people and just relax without feeling that there was a weight on my shoulders. That eevee and I really got along, and that was just putting it lightly. We were around the same age and somewhat thought alike, so it made a bit of sense to me that she'd follow my lead wherever I go. It wasn't just that of course, but I felt like we were meant for one another. My companionship with her was probably the most enjoyable part of this adventure of ours. Though it made me wonder, was she searching for something too?

Ryan. He isn't even officially my pokemon, but despite that fact, he got along with the two of us just fine. I didn't know too much about him besides the fact that he lives in and defends Viridian Forest, but I wanted to spend more time with him in the future too. That is, if the future allowed it. _That reminds me, I told him we were going to the gym. He seemed confident enough for it…_

I actually did forget about the gym for a moment, but it wasn't near as troublesome as facing thugs every other day. Ryan had a pretty good reason to beef with Team X, who invaded his home and kidnapped his friends. He wanted to get stronger, and there was no way that I planned to deny him any help. It did make me wonder what did those goons plan to do with all of those pokemon.

Being lost in my thoughts, I noticed the sound of worried squawks coming from in front of me. When I looked up ahead, I saw a flock of the same pidgey that I saw before, only that they were going in the opposite direction, towards me!

I covered my head and ducked for cover as the pidgey zipped by me in a flash, a few of the hurried bunch almost slamming into me before they took off into the sky. I stood up and watched the pidgey fly away, still squawking with horrified expressions on their faces. I quickly reminded myself to put on my bandanna, which was still in my pocket. I quickly tied the red cloth around my neck in hopes I could catch an earful of what they were saying, but no dice. They were already too far for me to hear them.

Everything was dead silent now, only leaving me to look into the direction of where the birds came from. I guessed that something happened in those trees while the pidgey were probably hunting for bugs. I wondered to myself if I should really go see what the big deal was, it could have just been a pokemon there that was too strong for them. I stood there for what seemed like forever until I heard something, voices to be exact.

I couldn't hear what the voices were saying, but I guessed for there to be two of them. One sounded like a guy that was yelling, not a frightened yell by the way. The yell was like someone who was determined to prove himself right in an argument, or at least they were really angry. Then I listened to the other one. This one...was much more distressed, and I couldn't tell what it was distressed about. Maybe it was just a couple arguing...but my feet were already moving in the direction of the sound. It wasn't any of my business, but this was something that I would call a nasty habit I need to quit…Without much protest from anyone else, I cautiously made way toward the direction of the voices...

* * *

I was close now, at least, that's what I could tell. The yelling had stopped a short while ago, and the only thing I could hear was some heavy breathing and someone else talking, this time only one person doing the speaking. Knowing that I was close enough, I decided to use my head for once and took cover behind a few convenient bushes for me to safely scope from. I was close enough to the possible danger zone, nearly right next to it from how well I could hear everything that was going on.

Peaking my head over the bushes and scanning over the area, I noticed that I was near a small clearing that was hidden in the dense trees, with two figures being there. The first of those figures was actually a pokemon, being a light blue in color. It had huge ears that were equivalent in size to its head, and had barbs sticking from those ears and its back as well. With its white tummy and small, but sharp claws, I could see that this was clearly a nidorina. She had a defeated and ashamed look on her face, and with her face gazing down at the dirt and grass, I could barely see her bright magenta eyes shedding tears.

All across her body were cuts and bruises, the cuts looked like they would have had to come from either another pokemon's claws or a knife. Something glimmered next to her in the grass, catching my attention quicker than I would have liked. From what I could tell of its nearly clear color and lunar shine, that would have been a moonstone, a stone that pushed nidorina and its male counterpart to evolve.

Bringing my attention to the other figure, I noticed it to be a man who was scraping something off of his boot with what had to be a pocket knife with a sadistic grin on his face. I clenched my teeth and growled under my breath when I saw his orange jumpsuit and the blue 'X' across his chest. _Just who were these guys!? And why do I keep running into them!?_ Despite my inner rage telling my instincts to go berserk on him right away, I stopped myself when I heard him speak.

"Heh, I told you to evolve, you stupid bitch." the man told the nidorina with a snort, who ignored him as she tried to dry her tears, which only dripped over her stubby arms as she aimed to keep her grief to herself. I could hear her quietly sobbing to herself, and for some reason I thought that I cared for her more than she did for herself. Why didn't she just poison the goon!? "I was told you were the best damn nidorina out there, yet you won't evolve, making you useless for anything but a good fucking." sneered the man, chuckling to himself as I wondered what in the world did he mean by that.

Looking between the two, I definitely did notice the connection with the cuts and bruises on the nidorina to the man that sat with her. It wasn't until I got an even closer look at the nidorina that my already gritted teeth were going to shatter due to the force they were putting out with my anger. I only just noticed the awkward way the nidorina was sitting, her body facing away from the grunt while her legs shifted about more than what I would have called normal. That wasn't even the worse detail, no.

Not by far.

There was blood. From what I gathered, there was a lot of blood...in her... _special area._ My face grimaced, scrunching up to the point to where I was easily giving myself a headache with all of my wrinkles. Her...womanhood was bleeding, ravaged, and I found myself disgusted from looking at it alone. I glared toward the Team X grunt as he laughed sadistically, my eyes dilating and my breathing picking up to a much faster rate than what was considered normal. _This...asshole, took advantage of this pokemon...What the hell…? WHAT THE HELL!_ Though it was only in my mind, I had never felt hatred toward anyone more than this sorry asshole right here. To the point where he was making me shout out profanities, which I have barely ever used before, if not at all.

Laughing. He just kept laughing as the poor poison pokemon silently sobbed to herself. I couldn't take it anymore, this was going to end right here, right now.

I started to move, causing the bushes to rustle which quickly gained the attention of the grunt and the nidorina who was with him. I didn't care anymore, I was practically hissing with malice in my eyes, steam pouring from my nostrils and my ears. My hands were into fist, which were starting to shake. I was pissed, and for some reason...I found myself crying too.

The nidorina looked at me, not saying a word before the man stood up in a jiff once he saw that I have been eavesdropping on him. "Hey! What do you think you're doing!? You fucking punk, do you want to get killed!?" the grunt yelled at me, though I barely heard him in my rage. I watched his hands, his right was holding his pocket knife. It shook slightly, and his index and thumb fingers were a little too close to the blade. One wild swing and he would probably cut himself. His right hand only proved to be a decoy though, as his left was sneaking toward his belt, where a single pokeball rested. From what I could tell, this guy barely knew how to use said pocket knife, and whatever was in that ball of his he had more confidence in than his own swing.

My mind started to race quicker than what felt like time itself. I would find myself in deep trouble if that pokemon came out of its ball. I had nothing to fend it off with, not even Kayla or Ryan, who could have been very well still asleep in the tent, which was a ways away from here. I knew that I couldn't afford that type of risk, so as usual, I did something hasty.

Without a single thought, I rammed myself into the man, making him lose his breath and drop his pocket knife on the floor right next to us as I fell on top of him. I quickly grabbed to pokeball in his belt and chucked it into the distance. Who knew how far it went.

In a blind rage, I threw a relentless hail of punches straight into the grunt's face. I was instantly met with blood flying onto my face and my fist as the man squirmed and yelled under me, trying to use one of his hands to push me off. I smacked that disgusting hand away from me before I continued to rain hell on his face, which started to bruise in multiple places and bleed around places like his eye and mouth. I let out a feral roar as I gave him my combo, and I didn't plan to stop until a swift slice to my side made me give a silent gasp.

I slightly wheezed, tumbling off of the man and over to my side, doubling over in pain as I held the side of my stomach. He cut me in a really sensitive and fleshy spot, where it started to instantly leak with my blood with a horrible, stinging pain. I glared over to the man, who by now was starting to get to his feet, with my blood on his knife, which the blade he had in his hand. He was now leaking blood from said hand, but that didn't seem to matter to him when he hobbled away, not bothering to give me a second glance before he disappeared into the trees. I sucked my teeth as I continued to hold my side, cursing myself for being stupid enough to not see such an obvious attack coming. At the same time, I never expected to get as enraged as I did…

I continued to hold my wound, trying to keep my breath steady though I barely managed to keep myself from sounding hoarse. My blood was starting to leak over my hand as I looked around, eventually noticing the nidorina, who was staring at me with a blank expression that said she didn't know what to think. I finally remembered the reason that I was so enraged to begin with. I frowned at the poor pokemon, hoping that I could do something to help her out. If anything, she had dealt with a lot more pain than I was dealing with right now.

I had little strength, but I forced my legs to pick myself up. My legs slightly shook with each step I took as I wobbled over to the nidorina. Before I could get too close however, she growled at me and took a defensive stance on all fours, though she stumbled a little due to the sudden movement after not so pleasant events.

"Stay away, boy!" hissed the poison type, making me instantly stop in my slow tracks as her barbs raised up defensively. "Touch me, and you die." If she had fur, it would be standing on end the exact way her barbs were. I gulped and stepped back as her magenta eyes seemed to burn with an inferno, and she stared me down. She was serious, and I wouldn't dare try to touch her without having the proper antidote to counter her poison.

I weakly pulled my pokedex out of my pocket, which I decided to bring along with me just in case I ran into some interesting pokemon, and pointed it in the nidorina's direction as she stood her ground. I read the information I found in my head. _**Nidorina, known as the Poison Pin Pokemon. They usually are docile with a gentle and caring nature. The horn on its head develops slower than their male counterparts, and they prefer not to fight. When they do fight, they prefer physical attacks such as clawing or biting. Despite being gentle in nature, never upset one.**_

That last sentence seemed more believable than the rest. This nidorina literally just threatened the guy that saved her while having a stinging cut in his stomach. So much more gentle and caring, but this nidorina did seem different than others of its kind in the physical sense too. Her thorns were longer than what was normal, and she stood a few inches over three feet tall, definitely bigger than the average height for them. Though I couldn't tell from that alone whether or not she was stronger than any other of her kind like that thug suggested.

"Look...I just wanna help you out. Just look at you, you're hurt pretty bad. I can't…" I had to take a deep breath, with the pain in my side only starting to sting more as seconds turned into minutes. "I can't leave you out here like this…"

The nidorina stared me in the eyes for a short moment, as if reading my mind to see if I were telling the truth. I got my answer when she turned her back toward me and crossed her arms, keeping in mind to keep her barbs raised at me.

"No, now leave me be." was all I heard come from her in a stern voice.

I grumbled under my breath to her blunt answer as she turned her head to look at me, only giving me an angry frown that said that she clearly didn't want my help. The pain in my side was getting worse, and I knew that it would be a bad idea to stay out here without help much longer. I certainly didn't want to leave this nidorina hanging, and I wasn't going to.

My face straightened as I went silent, pulling a pokeball out of my pocket and pressing it so that it would enlarge. The nidorina's eyes dilated to specks as her nostrils bursted with steam before she took her defensive stance once again, clawing at the ground as if to intimidate me. "What the hell is your problem!? Go away, I swear I will kill you if you even dare to- Eep!"

My pokeball accidentally bounced off of her head before absorbing her inside with a bright flash of red. I didn't mean to hit her on the head, maybe somewhere like on the arm, but I didn't exactly have the best aim when I actually haven't captured a wild pokemon for real. Kayla was already willing to leave with me, and Ryan wasn't exactly my pokemon either. Either way, this isn't something that I would actually like to celebrate at the moment. There was no question about it, I did what I had to do. With all of the pain she went through already, it was clear that she was too weak to break the hold of the pokeball, and she went in without a single nudge. The first thing I needed to do was head back to the campsite and pack it up…

* * *

I had finally made it back to the campsite after a half hour with careful steps. I had gotten used to the pain just enough for me to walk a little like normal, though each of my steps made me feel as if I were weighed down by bricks. By what must have been coincidence, Kayla and Ryan were just stepping out of the tent. Ryan wiping his eyes of post sleep debris while Kayla attempted to focus on grooming her fur, which was all ruffled up after a rough night's sleep, she probably had a bad dream or something.

I couldn't help but smile at the sight of my friends, making the events of earlier nearly fade away. Of course, nearly wasn't near enough. My expression instantly changed to a frown the moment they noticed me, along with the blood over my hand and thick wet spot under the tear in my shirt.

Kayla and Ryan both dashed over to my side before I even knew it, the both of them shouted "What the heck happened to you, Kentral!?" The both of them examined me as they threw question after question at me, like 'Who did it?' or 'Why didn't you tell us to come with you?' Sadly, there wasn't much time to answer these questions, at least not in my mind. The burning pain in my side was only getting worse, and stinging with my hand gripping around it, making me not even want to try to hold it anymore. I was about to go into tears honestly, but I forced myself to be strong.

"I'll have to fill you in on the way," I told the both of them, who both gave defeated sights after giving me the eye. They knew that I would let them know eventually, but for now, I wanted to get everything patched up sooner rather than later…

 **Pewter City**

The trip to the pokemon center had been a somewhat awkward one, mostly due to the numerous times Ryan swore under his breath. He was angry to say the least, but I think that he was very torn up about what happened to me and how it happened. With the mention of Team X as well, he would have been more than angry, that would add another tally to the list of his friends harmed by Team X. Well, at least I thought we were pretty good friends by now, and he helped keep me on my feet thanks to his vines being decent crutches.

Kayla on the other hand was really comforting. All the way until we walked into the doors of the pokemon center, Kayla stayed by my side, nuzzling her body into my leg and telling me that everything would be alright. She was really cuddly today and I had no idea why, though I was used to her being rather affectionate. Needless to say, the two of them helped me push the pain in my side to the back of my head and focus on getting treated. Hopefully that treatment would soon come with the surprised nurse that we were walking up to. The looks that everybody was giving me in the pokemon center told me that they wanted to know what happened just as Ryan and Kayla did before I filled them in.

"Do you think that nidorina will be alright?" asked Ryan bitterly. As for the reason Ryan was swearing under his breath, it wasn't just this Team X business, but he was also already not too fond of the nidorina that I met. He didn't like the way she had such a prideful attitude after what happened to her. Even if he was a little prideful himself, he knew when it was time to ask for help. Maybe I was just more naive than I thought, but I figured that I shouldn't have caught her without permission, even if that's how most trainers do it, I just wasn't brought up that way.

"I hope so, Ryan. I'll admit, Team X is really starting to get under my skin. I thought they were just normal thugs that steal and stuff like that, but after all of this, I'm not too sure if this is the worse that they've done…" I told Ryan, meanwhile not realizing that the nurse that I stopped in front of gave me a crazy look, seeming more focused on the fact that I was having a conversation with a cabbage dinosaur who couldn't speak out of his species name. I didn't pay any mind to her look until I was done talking to him and turned to her. The nurse forced a smile on her face.

"May I be of assistance?" she asked me, mostly referring to the cut in my side. I had a whole story to tell her if I planned to help this nidorina as well as myself. With that mindset, I started to tell the nurse everything that happened before I met the nidorina…

My story left the nurse with a somewhat shocked but more disgusted expression. She cringed through most of the more graphic details that I wish I hadn't gotten so deep into explaining. I had the nidorina's pokeball in my hand from the moment I started explaining her physical status.

"Don't you worry! I'll take care of your nidorina right away! Give me the pokeball!" announced the nurse before she snatched the pokeball from my hand in a flash and disappearing down the halls in the back, like a snap of my fingers. I looked between my now empty hand and the halls, still trying to process what just happened. All of that, and I didn't even get a bandage for my side…

* * *

After finding an assistant that happened to be helping out around the pokemon center, I considered myself lucky to finally have some wrap around that annoying cut so I could finally stop thinking about it and worry about more important things. Kayla, Ryan, and I were left to twiddle our thumbs and wait for word on the nidorina. Not like I really had a choice, she was considered my pokemon now and I couldn't just leave her here, especially with the way she acted toward me. It made me wonder how was she was doing with the nurse…

Kayla was nested into my lap, which I didn't have much of a problem with. I mostly passed the time by running my fingers through her soft, caramel fur, which she purred contently to. She was practically near asleep as her tail swished and swayed from side to side. Ryan sat in his own chair with a frown on his face, the reason why he was in a bad mood being obvious by now.

It actually had only been about ten minutes after she left that the nurse was coming back to meet us, with a somewhat distressed look on her face. The three of us raised our eyebrows at the nurse, waiting for any kind of news that had to do with the nidorina. The nurse sighed and lowered her head.

"She's...a little hard to get under control. She growls and threatens me with her horns whenever I try to get close to her." said the nurse, making Ryan roll his eyes while Kayla and I sighed in defeat, me guessing that something like this would happen. "But...the weird thing is that she didn't try to escape or anything, she only kept pointing at the pokeball that you owned and then out of the room. It's my guess that she wants to see you…" the nurse said, placing a hand on her chin as the three of us looked toward one another with confused expressions.

"Well, guess I'll go do that then…" I said to everyone, standing to my feet after Kayla hopped off of my lap while Ryan had a face that told me that he thought I lost my common sense.

"Kentral, you can't be serious about it, at least don't go alone in there. We'll come with you." said Ryan to me in a hurry. Too bad that I had that gut feeling that told me to do it on my own.

"No. I have to go alone. It's my responsibility after all." I looked toward the grass type. "Don't worry, I have the feeling that I'll be okay." After saying that to Ryan, I felt Kayla's small paws hold onto my hand. I looked toward the fox, who had a weak smile on her face. For some reason, her touch gave me a boost of confidence.

"Just be careful in there." warned the fox, who now let go on my hand. I gave Kayla a confident nod…

I was now in the hallways of the pokemon center, where all of the patient pokemon were supposed to be getting healed of serious injuries, emergency checkups, and so on. The halls were dimly lit, making for a somewhat refreshing atmosphere, but I wasn't here to soak in the AC neither. There was only one door that was open, left slightly ajar to be more accurate. The nurse told me that this room was the one, and I would believe it too because the nurse said that she didn't try to escape. It only made me wonder what the deal was with this nidorina. I placed my hand onto the door, taking a deep breath before I walked inside and reluctantly closed the door behind me.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" I heard a feminine voice yell, instantly making my body push back against the back door as I chattered my teeth in fear. I was now staring at an angry nidorina who was yelling at me from the bed that was in the room, which she didn't try to move from for some reason. "I told you to not help me! I didn't need it!" she hissed, suddenly dropping her tone significantly from that near scream. Now her tone was a lot more like a wife scolding her husband for leaving the toilet seat up, or telling her child to finish their homework. She didn't seem that angry now, nor did she try to attack me. Not even a slap across the face. She was irritated for sure, but definitely not threatening me anymore. Maybe it was just because she was actually my pokemon now, but I couldn't be sure. I didn't know if she had her own trainer or pokeball before, whether or not she was kidnapped from the wild or someone's home or anything about her before what I saw today.

I decided to catch my halted breath so I could explain myself. She crossed her arms while raising an eyebrow with what I could only explain as the most smug straight face I have ever seen. "Okay look, I was already mad and only trying to help you... I honestly thought that it was wrong to catch you like that without your permission. I'm sorry, alright?" Even if she wasn't a wild pokemon for real, she was still technically my first catch, and it was only because I felt like I had no other choice.

The nidorina closed her eyes and slowly nodded, as in she was actually trying to hear my story out. I did help her after all, so I was at least glad that she was trying to cooperate with me. That, I was really thankful for already. "I guess I was just worried about your safety," I continued to explain, before the nidorina opened her eyes and looked at me.

"Okay, forgiven. But I am curious about something." she said, catching my attention fully before she pointed a claw to my bandanna that was around my neck. "Can you really understand what I say with that bandanna?" The nidorina seemed to be impressed with my ability to understand her, and it was needless to say that I was impressed with the fact that she actually knew about the bandanna's power too.

I nodded. "Yeah. So you know of it too, then?" I asked, the nidorina nodding right after me.

"Yes, more than you might think. I learned a lot of it from this guy that I met one day." said the nidorina. I was beyond curious of what she actually knew about my dad's keepsake, but there would be time for it later if she were willing to talk anymore about it. I was more concerned about the nidorina's well being, as well as herself naturally.

"May I ask your name? If you have one, that is." I asked her, walking over to the side of the room before sitting on the floor, completely ignoring the chair that was right in my face a minute ago.

"It's...Arabelle. Yours?" the nidorina told me, slightly blushing under her cheeks. That was a strangely elegant name for a nidorina, but it was actually a cute one, and I felt like she wore the name well. I wanted to try and make conversation with her, attempting to break the awkwardness of Arabelle's attitude towards me and the nurse earlier. I couldn't believe how cooperative she suddenly was.

"My name's Kentral. Happy to meet you, Arabelle." I told the nidorina with a smile. "I'm also curious of a few things as well, but I feel like it would be too rude to ask right now…" A nervous chuckle escaped my throat before Arabelle sat up straight.

"Then allow me to feed your curiosity for you, and I'll try to make it short and sweet. I was captured in the wild for your human studies on pokemon I suppose. They were going on about something involving the fact that I had perfect...I Vees or something like that. I was soon sold off to some rich man, but I never got to know him for too long. After a week or two of living there, that's when Team X suddenly raided the house for a robbery, eventually murdering my first trainer and torching the house after making off with a lot of money as well as myself before the police could show up. Below average response speed as usual in Kanto." Arabelle explained. "You with me so far?"

I silently nodded to Arabelle's question, forcing myself to loosen my hands that at some point became fists. If my nails were claws, I would have surely made my palms bleed out with how hard I was clenching them. "So," Arabelle continued "Next thing I knew I went from Celadon to Pewter. The guy that had me tried to force me to evolve so he could give me to his boss and get a promotion. Needless to say, I didn't want to evolve, not for him nor anyone. Everytime I didn't…" the nidorina gave a sigh between her words as I lowered my head, knowing what to expect next.

"He'd just sick his arbok on me, which was actually trained for fighting and immune to my poison. After getting a beating from that lowly serpent, that thug would recall it to its ball before he would have his way with me. Honestly, everyone thinks I'm strong, but I'm really weak, because I have never had anyone teach me how to fight, so if he threw that arbok out, it would have been curtains for you. You really dodged a bullet," Arabelle joked weakly, a tear trailing down her eyes, thanking whatever god there was up there that part of her life was over.

I snarled under my breath as my hands instantly turned back into fist. I tried to keep myself under control, but each time I heard mention of Team X and their misdeeds, it started to really get me furious. I knew that Team X were a group of no good thugs, but raping pokemon, better yet raping anyone...was a new all time low for them. All I wanted to do was just go on a journey, and maybe find out something about my parents on the way...Since I met Kayla, that's all I wanted. Team X seemed to attack anyone, and everyone that I met, first Kayla and I, then Ryan, and now Arabelle! Who was next!? Even if it were unintentional, Team X was starting a war with me inside of my head, and I wanted it all to end!

Arabelle had a curious expression on her face, that I didn't clearly notice due to being a little too deep into my thoughts. "Kentral, have you met with those people before?" the nidorina asked me, I sighed to myself when I heard that question.

"Oh I can tell you a lot of stories…"

I briefed Arabelle on all of my run ins with Team X, how they interfered with my life as well as the others that I've met so far. With the event that happened today, that totaled to four, within the past week. That is certainly more times that I've run into the same gang that anyone would call normal, and I hated it.

"So I guess that they're a pain in your side just as much as mine." Arabelle asked me, and what else would I do but nod in agreement? Everytime I see them running around, their crimes get worse and worse.

"Despite everything that they did, there's something more to it. I feel like it's personal but I don't know why. I truly do hate them and want to see them taken down." I told the nidorina before clenching my fist. Arabelle went silent, nodding to my statement, she was looking down to the orange sheets under her, seemingly deep in thought about something.

"Hey, do you really want to screw with them?" Arabelle asked me with a smirk, which made me raise my eyebrow at the blue reptile. Despite being confused as to what she meant, I nodded an agreement. Just how did she plan on accomplishing that though…?

"Let me explain." Arabelle started. "I heard that asshole that I was with talking about an operation that they had going on in the pewter museum tomorrow. Apparently, they are supposed to be getting supplies and they have some pokemon that they have recently captured also being shipped across the region, a trade perhaps. Putting a stop to these plans will really screw them over, serves them right."

 _Wait a minute, those captured pokemon could be Ryan's friends! Boy, would he be relieved to hear this, but this is all pretty strange. How could we pull this off…?_ I thought to myself.

"Well, I guess I'm interested. Though, I haven't heard of anything weird going on over at the museum before, it should still be worth looking into…" The four of us could get every thug there behind bars, so we at least had to do something about it. "Why aren't the police doing anything about this though?" I asked Arabelle, who rolled her eyes.

"You wouldn't believe how easy it is to bribe the local police to keep their mouths shut when you have nearly the whole world supplying you with money. It's a shame, but it's a near guarantee that they won't do a thing to help us out until we can at least get most of the gang down. I wouldn't trust the police enough to tell it to their faces, some of them can be a little corrupt, so I wouldn't tell them something that screws with their bigger paycheck…" informed Arabelle, making me slightly shiver with the thought of how big of a situation I was getting myself and my friends into this time. If anything though, I knew both Kayla and Ryan especially would help me out here. I nodded to the nidorina.

"Okay, so I guess we're doing this tomorrow." I told Arabelle with a small smile. Something told me to help this girl out, after all, she wanted to live a normal life just like me before Team X interfered. We all had something in common, and it seemed that Arabelle wanted to join me for the wild ride. Arabelle gave me what looked like a genuine smile for the first time since we met, her bright magenta eyes staring into my own. She actually looked a little cute if I were to be honest.

I felt enough confidence to walk over to the bed where she sat, where she shook my hand in her claws a little bit without me having to lift a finger. I think I had just made a good friend and ally. "I'm going with you, naturally, so I guess I will cooperate with the nurse as long as you come back for me. Are we clear?" Arabelle asked me, making me chuckle a little before nodding to her.

"You have my word."

* * *

With the nurse waiting outside just to make sure I wouldn't come out suddenly feeling ill, I gave her the okay to head in Arabelle's room and do her thing. She certainly was an interesting nidorina alright, with a lot more story behind her than what she let on. It made me wonder if there was actually had a reason behind her name, which I honestly couldn't stop repeating in my head.

I met up with Kayla and Ryan, who were awaiting my return on the seats where I left them. "So, what's up?" Kayla asked me. "You were in there for over an hour."

"The main thing is you might as well expect that nidorina to join us soon. Her name is Arabelle." I told the two pokemon, who gave me surprised expressions, wondering what could have possibly gone on in there that made her want to come with us so quickly. "I guess I should explain, I think she's a lot nicer then she lets on…" I said with a chuckle.

"Yes please!" Kayla barked, while Ryan just waited for me to explain, still a little bitter toward Arabelle. I told them everything that I knew that I didn't consider too secretive so they could understand fully. Oddly enough, that explanation didn't take nearly as long as I thought. "Anyway, she's gonna help us get your friends back," I said to Ryan specifically, "...and bring down a big operation that they're doing! It's time that we give Team X a taste of their own medicine!"

Ryan and Kayla gave each other surprised looks before looking at me again to see that I wasn't joking around when I smacked my fist into my open palm. Both pokemon suddenly had huge grins on their faces before we all shouted…

"LET'S DO IT!"

Which of course earned the attention of nearly everybody in the pokemon center…

* * *

 **End Notes: I honestly don't have much to say besides that I think I predicted Let's Go Eevee with this story.**


End file.
